


Speed Prophet

by Almyrah



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, I love her, Not Beta Read, Season/Series 01 Spoilers, Speed Force, do not hate on this oc, oc has speed force, oc insert starting 1x7, oc joins team flash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-13 09:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14746209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Almyrah/pseuds/Almyrah
Summary: When Sally Sylvester gets an interview for an internship at STAR Labs, she gains a family and accepts her destiny as a Speed ProphetBasically an oc-insert throughout season 1 of the flash. Can be read as reader insert if you want.





	1. Prophet of the Speed Force (Power Outage)

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first work I've posted to AO3. Feel free to replace Sally with yourself as you read this, but don't hate on her, I love her.

Sally Sylvester was walking down the street heading for her morning class when she spotted a man at gun point being mugged next to Jitters. She stopped walking and watched from across the street, her phone in her hands in case she needed to call the cops afterwards. The man facing the barrel of the gun, however, appeared amused, but Sally couldn’t be sure. He was young with brown hair. He walked away from the gun laughing. She tensed as she saw the mugger turn the safety off, but then he was surrounded by familiar yellow lightning and in his underwear. The brown-haired man and the coffee cup that was next to him was gone and an officer seemed to take the man’s place. Sally blinked and looked around the street to see if anyone else saw what just happened. They didn’t. Sally looked back, saw the mugger being arrested, and decided she should just head to class. She had an appointment with an internship advisor after, so it would probably help to not get scolded by her organic chem professor for being late to the discussion after the class and be late to the appointment.

She made it to class on time and the class was hell, like usual, and she made it to her appointment on the other side of campus with a few minutes to think about what she was going to say.

“Sally?”

Sally stood up and walked towards the black-haired advisor that had called her name and smiled. Sally and the advisor, Debbie, entered the office and they sat at opposite sides of the desk. Debbie started looking at her computer screen, adjusting her glasses. “So, it says here that you’re a Chemistry major?”

Sally nodded. “If possible, I’d like an internship at a lab or even in the industry. I’m not picky.”

“Unfortunately, all of the chemistry internships for freshman have been taken.” Debbie looked at Sally.

“Oh,” Sally said, “Is there still a possibility of an internship being open that wouldn’t mind a chemist?”

“Well, there’s an internship available at STAR Labs, that no one seems to want.” Debbie scrolls down the screen, “there’s no specific requirements listed.” Debbie smiled at Sally. “It’s not chemistry, but it is a lab.”

Sally felt her heart swell up with hope and she smiled. “I’ll take it!”

“Great! It looks like I can schedule you a meeting around seven if that works for you.” Sally’s smile faltered.

“Seven? That’s unusually late.”

“It’s the only time that they can meet with potential interns.” Debbie looked at Sally over her glasses. “Does it not work for you?”

“No, it does!” Sally blurted out.

Debbie grinned. “I’ll call them and say that you’re coming.” She removed a sticky note from the stack and started writing on it. “This is all the information you need.”

“Thank you, Debbie!”

“Don’t be late, my reputation is on the line,” she said while smiling. Sally said good bye and left the office before she squealed.

* * *

 

“Barry, we will find a way to restore your speed. I promise you that.” Barry nodded at Dr. Wells words and walked away downhearted. “While, he warns Detective West, we should start figuring out how to get his powers back.” Dr. Wells left the room.

“Right.” Cisco said and sat down.

“Hey, Cisco?”

“Yeah.”

“Why did an advisor from CCU call to make an appointment about an internship position?”

Cisco turned to look at her. “Well I figured with so much of our focus going towards Barry and the Flash, we could use some more people to work on our research into dark matter.”

“You know Dr. Wells will not approve of an intern.”

“That’s why I’d only meet with the intern after hours, when Dr. Wells has already gone home. When will they be coming?”

“The advisor said seven o’clock.”

Cisco stood. “That’s in two hours. D’you think Dr. Wells will be home by then?” Caitlin shook her head. “Right, we’ll work on this, and I’ll prepare a place for the interview.”

* * *

 

At 6:30 Sally was standing in front of the entrance to STAR Labs where Debbie’s directions had told her to knock. She decided on wearing Jeans with a yellow blouse and a black blazer for the interview. There was a button underneath the intercom. She held it down, “Hello? My name is Sally Sylvester, I’m here for the interview.”

There were a few moments of silence until the intercom crackled to life. “Yes, come on up to room C10.” She heard the entrance unlock and entered. On the walls were signs on computer paper showing the way to the room. She found it easily and knocked on the closed door.

“Come in.” It was the same voice from the intercom. She opened the door to find a rather messy office with a guy with amazing hair sitting in one of the two seats in the room.

“I’m Sally Sylvester. Pleasure to meet you.” She stood next to the desk and extended her right hand.

The man stood up and shook her hand. “Cisco Ramon. Please have a seat.” Sally sat in the other chair as Mr. Ramon sat back down. Sally handed her sparse resume to him.

“So, tell me Sally, why do you want to intern at STAR Labs?”

Sally breathed deeply and prepared to recite the story that she had been practicing all day. “Ever since the accident that occurred 10 months ago, I’ve been interested in the particle accelerator and the rumors of it releasing dark matter because when I was--“ The man’s tablet beeped.

“Excuse me.” He casually glanced at the tablet, then his eyes widened, and he grabbed the tablet and headed towards the door. “Stay here and don’t touch anything.” Sally sighed, and lazily looked around the room.

A minute later alarms started to go off and the feed from a security camera was displayed on a computer screen on the desk. He had weird, blue, raccoon-like eyes and was wearing a leather jacket. “Dr. Harrison Wells, I need to see you!” Sally gasped and debated if she should really stay. “Come on, I know you’re inside. Open the door! I just want to talk, Dr. Wells.” Sally left the room to find anyone else in the building.  She hadn’t found anyone when the lights started to flicker. She had entered what appeared to be the main control room for the lab, where she found Mr. Ramon and two other people. When the lights went out completely, Sally heard one of them say that someone was inside.

“What’s going on,” she asked them. They turned around and Sally noticed the brown-haired man immediately. “Wait, I know you. You’re the Flash!”

Everyone looked at Sally, shocked, as Dr. Wells entered the room. “How do you know that,” he asked.

“I saw you strip the clothes off of a mugger this morning.”

“You saw that?”

“We’ll talk about this later, Barry. Right now, you should try and contact Detective West and the GCPD.” Barry nodded and to the opposite end of the room to make the call. Dr. Wells turned to Sally. “Who are you?”

“Right, Dr. Wells. I’m Sally Sylvester. I’m here interviewing for the internship position.” She held out her hand for him to shake. He turned his chair to face Mr. Ramon.

“What internship position?” Mr. Ramon chuckled nervously.

“Just to help around the lab, take coffee orders, and such.” He hid behind the woman.

Dr. Wells turned back to Sally. “I’m sorry but there’s no internship available here.” Sally’s heart sank, and the Flash rejoined the group, distressed.

“Joe and Iris are in trouble. I need my powers back now!”

“I have a theory,” Dr. Wells turned to fully face the Flash, “it’s untested.”

“I’m willing to roll the dice.”

“Okay, you’ve lost your speed, yes, but nothing has changed inside you on a subatomic level. In other words, your cells are stilled primed.” Sally was absorbed in the conversation between the two men.

“They just need a jumpstart,” Mr. Ramon said.

“Okay how do we do that? How do we jumpstart me?”

“We need to replicate the initial jolt to your system.” Sally looked down at her hands, trying to find the courage to speak up, to help in some way since she couldn’t leave the scientists, she literally could not leave the building.

“But that would mean a peak current of at least twenty thousand kiloamps,” Mr. Ramon explained.

“Are you insane,” the woman said, “that’s more electricity than they give to people in the electric chair.” Sally knew she should say something. The Flash placed his hands behind his neck.

“Caitlin, with Farooq in the building, we’re all looking at a death sentence here, even Sally.” She looked up when she heard Dr. Wells say her name.

“The spare generator’s offline,” Mr. Ramon said, “if we reboot it we could get a charge that big.” Sally could see the Flash fidgeting.

“We need something that can transmit the load from the generator to Barry’s body without shorting out.”

“The treadmill. My baby could take the charge.” Sally looked over at the treadmill in the other room, it didn’t look like it was special from where she was standing.

“What if Barry can’t,” the woman, Caitlin asked.

“Well, that’s up to Mr. Allen.” Sally looked at the Flash, who she now knew as Barry Allen, as did Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and Mr. Ramon.

Barry walked toward the hallway. “Where are you going?” Caitlin asked what Sally was thinking.

He turned towards the group. “I’m gonna talk to him.”

“Nope. No.”

“Barry,” Sally said. Everyone turned to look at her. “I might not know what’s going on, but this Farooq guy doesn’t seem like the kind of guy you should talk to alone.”

“Okay, you didn’t see him at the substation. He needed to feed. I got superspeed out of the particle accelerator blast, but his best friends died. He woke up with a disease.” Sally’s eyes flashed yellow for a moment.

“Earlier today, you worked a crime scene where this metahuman electrocuted an innocent man.” Dr. Wells raised his voice, “He’s a murderer! And you are powerless to defend yourself against him.”

Sally opened her mouth, then closed it. “He may just need help,” Barry said, “like I did. I don’t need my powers to offer him that. I have to try.” He left the room, and Sally felt like crying.

Sally’s eyes flashed yellow again, and she knew she could trust everyone in the room with her secret. “So, what are we gonna do?”

“We’re gonna follow him,” Dr. Wells responded. The four of them followed Barry, and when they reached him and Farooq, Caitlin and Mr. Ramon hid behind the doorway on the right, Dr. Wells and Sally hid on the left.

“The night of the accelerator explosion, it changed you,” Sally heard Barry say, “it changed me too.” The sound of electricity crackling had stopped, making everything seem abnormally quiet.

“You were the one in the red suit. I fed from you. I have to keep feeding.”

“Hey, alright, I know this has to be terrifying. That’s why I want to help you, okay?”

“The night of the explosion, when the light hit me, it stopped my heart. Jake and Darya—”

“They were your friends.”

“I woke up, and they were beside me, dead. They tried to give me CPR. They were touching me, and I electrocuted them.” Sally had tears rolling down her cheeks.

“This is not your fault.”

“I know,” Sally tensed as Farooq’s voice was suddenly filled with anger. “Wells did this to me.” Sally looked down to see Dr. Wells shake his head in annoyance.

“Farooq, you need to listen to me.” The sound of crackling electricity started up again, and Barry was thrown down the hallway. Caitlin went to check on Barry, while Mr. Ramon shut the door between Farooq and them.

“Not sure how long that’ll hold,” Mr. Ramon said. Sally and Dr. Wells joined Barry and Caitlin.

“Done being noble, Mr. Allen.” Barry nodded. “Caitlin, get him to the treadmill. Cisco bring the generator online. Make sure Barry gets the charge. Sally follow Farooq. I want an eye on him at all times. Take this.” He handed her an ear piece.

“Yes, sir.” Sally gave a little salute and started walk around the halls to get on the other side of the door.

“What,” Sally heard Cisco ask as she left the hall, “You’re not coming with me?”

She finally spotted him as he entered the same room with the treadmill. “Dr. Wells, he’s in the same room as Caitlin and Barry. What should I do?” Sally heard no response. “Dr. Wells?” Sally heard Farooq talking, hopefully to himself. She was about to enter the room to cause a distraction when the lights turned on.

“Dr. Wells, he’s exiting the room, ooh, and he’s just been punched by a metal man. How long has he been here? Is that normal?” Farooq sent a long stream of lightning at the metal guy and it did nothing. “Wow, metal man has a strong left hook. Farooq just blasted him down the hallway into a wall. He’s found Barry and Caitlin again, and I think metal man has been KO’d or worse.” Sally watched Farooq step over the body, and Sally approached him to check his pulse. “Yep, he’s dead, Jim.”

Sally finally heard Dr. Wells voice over the earpiece. “Meet me back by the treadmill. We’ll join the others in the generator room.”

“Roger that.”

“You don’t have to say ‘Roger’.”

After Dr. Wells and Sally met up, she followed him through STAR Labs, where they found an injured Barry. “Someone had to have let him go,” they heard Mr. Ramon say as they approached the room.

“I did. I released him.” Barry, Mr. Ramon, and Caitlin looked over at him and Sally. They were gathered by a table in the middle of the generator room.

Barry stood up. “Why?”

“To divert our intruder’s attention while we worked to restore your speed.”

Caitlin glanced at Barry while Mr. Ramon kept his eyes on Dr. Wells. “You used him as a distraction,” Barry asked. Caitlin turned back to Dr. Wells and Sally.

“An unnecessary one, as it turns out. It seems the plan has failed.” Sally put her hand over her mouth, shocked. All four of them were shocked at Dr. Wells’ words.

Dr. Wells and Sally entered the room and Dr. Wells went around the generator room and approached Barry.

“I have his blood on me. How could you do that?”

“You’re showing a lot of sentiment for a man who tormented you as a child.”

“Tony might have been a bully then and now, but he didn’t deserve to die.”

“Does Caitlin or Cisco or Sally or me or you? I had a choice to make, him or us. I chose us without a second thought.”

“Well, all your talk about miracle cures and scientific breakthroughs, but you don’t care about people at all.” Sally moved to stand next to Mr. Ramon.

“Well, maybe you care to much, Barry. I know being a hero is important to you, and I respect your ideals. I just don’t have the luxury of sharing them.”

“I forgot. Your game’s chess. We’re all just pawns to you, right? So, what’s your move, Doctor? Which one of us gets sacrificed next?” Barry and Dr. Wells glared at each other until we heard the lights in the lab short-circuiting.

“We have to get out of this facility.”

“We just left him on D-level.”

“We’ll never make it to the main entrance from here,” Caitlin said. She was currently typing on the generator laptop.

“What about the garage?” Mr. Ramon joined Caitlin at the laptop. “the mobile lab van?”

“It’s my move Mr. Allen, and I say we make a run for it.”

“Oh my god, Barry, look.” Barry, Sally, Mr. Ramon, and Dr. Wells all looked at the laptop’s screen. “Your cells, they’re rapidly regenerating.”

Barry started to vibrate his hand and it was one of the coolest things Sally has ever seen. “I still don’t have my speed.”

“It must be mental, not physical,” Dr. Wells said.

“What?” Sally said.

“O-oh, you have the yips.”

“The whats?”

“You know? When a second baseman all of a sudden can’t throw to first, or a golfer tries to putt, and they get all embarrassed and upset, and then that makes the yips worse, and it’s a hot mess, and then they feel like even more of a failure.”

“That’s not helping.” Barry exhaled, and Caitlin stood up.

“Look, you asked if I believed you were struck by the lightning for a reason, if you were chosen,” Caitlin said, “I believe. You should too.”

“Barry, I know we just met, like, twenty minutes ago, but all of Central City looks up to the Flash, and you are the Flash, whether you have powers or not.”

_BOOM._ Everyone glanced around the room.

“Let’s move,” Dr. Wells said. They all left the room, towards the garage.

They entered the garage, and Mr. Ramon shouted to Barry, “Second van, keys are inside.” Barry entered the van and started the engine. The engine purred and the garage door started to open. Sally, Mr. Ramon, Caitlin, and Dr. Wells ran towards the van. Suddenly, the van, the door, and Dr. Wells chair stopped running. Barry tried to restart the van, and Wells toggled with his controls, but nothing worked.

“He’s here.” Farooq entered the garage by the exit. The lights flickered  lit all of the lights as he walked. He blasted the van, and Barry jumped out.

“Barry.” Caitlin and Mr. Ramon ran towards him.

“Sally, I need you to create a distraction,” Dr. Wells whispered to Sally.

“What? How big?”

“As big as you can.”

Sally aligned herself to be behind Farooq. “Hey, Raccoon-eyes!” She succeeded in stopping his approach towards Barry. “Now for the distraction,” she muttered to herself and her eyes flashed red. “You like electricity so much? Here, you can have it!” Two streams of red and yellow lightning flew from her hands, the colors twisting together, and hit Farooq Gibran square om his back.

He stumbled forward. Sally swallowed as Farooq turned around. He started to approach her, and she shot short blasts at him. He glared at her as each blast made him wince. Sally saw white lightning coming towards her and she was thrown backwards. She hit her head on the floor when she landed a few feet from the exit and a meter away from Dr. Wells wheelchair, who was now in front of the garage door.

“Hey!” Dr. Wells shouted at Farooq, “You’re hear for me.” Sally started to lose consciousness as she saw Farooq Gibran approaching Dr. Wells. Her last thought as she passed out was, “I thought Dr. Wells chair didn’t work.”

* * *

 

Sally opened her eyes and saw the face and white hair of Granny from the orphanage where she grew up. Sally smiled. “Hey, Granny.” The memory of the last time Sally had seen Granny hit her. “Wait, you’re dead. Shit! Am I dead?”

Granny smiled. “You’re not dead, and we’re not Susan Parker.”

“Then who are you.”

“We’re the speed force.”

“The what?”

“We are what allows speedsters to run and we are how you can blast speed lightning from your hands. You’re a speedster.”

“I’m a speedster? But I can’t even run a mile in ten minutes!”

‘Granny’ smiled at Sally, and she felt like she was 6 again. “You’ll get there. You are not like Barry Allen, you are a link bet ween us and speedsters throughout time.”

“Can’t you just talk to Barry directly?”

“We can, but Barry would have to die first.”

Sally blinked. “Yeah, let’s not do that.” Sally looked down at her feet, then made eye contact with the speed force. “Why are you telling me this now? I mean, I was hit by the particle accelerator 10 months ago.”

The speed force placed a hand on Sally’s back. “You accepted your destiny today when you sacrificed your well-being to protect Barry Allen. We’re speaking to you now to warn you that one of Barry Allen’s friends cannot be trusted.”

“Which one,” Sally asked.

“We cannot tell you that without putting you at risk. You’ll have to discover that on your own. If you need to contact us, just meditate while focusing on this spot here.” The speed force lightly touched a point in the center of her back, center of shoulders, where she was hit by lightning during the particle accelerator explosion. The speed force looked at Sally and gave her one of Granny’s warmest smiles. “Remember, you are a prophet of the speed force.”

* * *

 

When Sally opened her eyes again, she groaned at the bright light.

“Sally?” Sally turned toward the voice.

“Mr. Ramon?”

“Oh, thank god you’re okay.”

“Mr. Ramon why are you hugging me?”

“Call me Cisco,” he said, still hugging her.

Sally sat up straight and Cisco let go of her. “Dr. Wells? Barry? Are they okay? What happened?”

“I can assure you that we’re fine.” Sally turned towards the left to see Dr. Wells by the doorway. “Mr. Allen is just spending time with his family.”

“What happened?” Sally repeated.

“Farooq Gibran is dead. He choked on Barry,” Cisco explained.

“Wait, he ate Barry!”

“No,” Caitlin said from across the room, “he choked on the energy that he drained from Barry. She walked over to the medical bed where Sally was sitting. “Could you look straight ahead for me?” Sally complied, and Caitlin shined the penlight into her right eye. “We haven’t officially met.” she switched the light to the left eye. “I’m Dr. Caitlin Snow. Follow the light.” She moved the penlight around.

“Pleasure to meet you, Dr. Snow.” Dr. Snow clicked the light off.

“I prefer Caitlin.” She smiled. “You are perfectly healthy.”

“Are you sure? I just had a weird dream.”

“What happened in it,” Dr. Wells asked, leaning forward in his chair.

“One of the caretakers from my orphanage told me I was some sort of speed prophet.”

“Speed Prophet!” Cisco exclaimed, “I like it. You’re keeping it.”

“Keeping it? For what?”

“for your internship,” Dr. Wells explained.

“Wait, you said… but there is no… what?”

The three of them smiled at each other before Dr. Wells said, “How would you like to join us to in protecting Central City?”

“Like as an intern?”

“No,” Cisco said, looking off in the distance, “as a hero.”

“We could use another heroic metahuman,” Said Dr. Wells.

“But I can’t run like Barry.”

“But your cells are regenerating as fast as Barry’s,” Caitlin explained, holding up a tablet, “You have the potential to be just as powerful as him.”

Sally took the tablet and watched as her cells vibrated and multiplied. “These are my cells?” Caitlin nodded. “Will I get a cool costume?”

Cisco snapped his fingers. “You bet you do.”

“Okay, I’ll do it. On one condition.” Sally handed the tablet back to Caitlin. “I have finals in two weeks. The only thing that I agree to do until my finals are over is train.”

Dr. Wells shrugged. “Sounds reasonable enough.” He approached the medical bed and they shook hands. “We’ll start Saturday.” Sally beamed at him.

“What time is it?”

Caitlin glanced at her watch. “It’s almost 8:30.”

“I should go tell my roommate that I’m okay. She must have freaked out at not being able to reach me.”

“Why wasn’t she able to reach you?”

“I turned my phone off, so it wouldn’t draw Farooq’s attention if it went off.” Sally slid off of the bed and grabbed her phone from her pocket. “What time should I be here on Saturday?”

“9 am is good, but wear athletic type clothes just in case,” Cisco said.

“9 am, got it.” Sally walked towards the doorway and turned around. “Thank you for this opportunity.”

* * *

 

Sally turned the handle to her room and opened the door. “Hey Meredith.”

“Hey Sally. Glad to see you’re okay.” she said turning in her desk chair.

“You too.”

“How did the internship search go?” Sally and Meredith’s room was long rectangle with a bed against the right and left wall, with a desk at the end of the beds. Sally’s side was on the left

Sally fell onto her bed. “Excellent. I got an internship at STAR Labs.” Meredith’s head whipped around, her red ponytail following the motion.

“STAR Labs! Are you crazy?”

Sally lifted her head up. “What?”

“Everyone on campus hates STAR Labs! They either lost a friend or had their life ruined by the explosion. You of all people should know this!” Sally became aware of the scar on her back and she sat up.

“Well then we don’t tell anyone about it.” She threw her hands up in the air. “There! Problem solved.”

There was an awkward silence.

“I bet you my tuition that STAR Labs was the cause of the power outage tonight,” Meredith said. She turned back to her laptop

Sally chewed on her lip. “To be completely fair, it wasn’t their fault.”

“Damn it, Sally!”


	2. I Can Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sally starts her training with Dr. Wells, Cisco, and Caitlin to better control her powers. However, her friends at Central City University don't approve of her "internship."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of all the languages that are spoken in this chapter, I only know French and English so I'm going to apologize to Spanish and German speakers in advance. Also I've created more ocs than I expected. I promise that most are going to be minor if you're deterred by that, I just didn't want Sally to not have friends.

_Sally hopped off her school bus down the street from the Central City Orphanage, her best friend Camila stepped down after her, and they headed towards their home. Sally was doing something between a skip and a jog towards CCO. Camila lagged behind, amused._

_“The Particle Accelerator won’t be turned on for hours. Ve más lento!”_

_Sally slowed down. “Sorry, Mila, I just want to make sure the picnic is set up before we have to help put the kids to bed._

_“How much preparation is needed for a picnic?”_

_“Blankets and I need to order a pizza for Sam, Eli, and us after everyone else is asleep so that their sweaty little palms don’t get any.” Camila laughed._

_“It’s a shame we’re missing the football game against Keystone.”_

_“We’ll win.” Sally and Camila entered the orphanage. “Jax will kick Keystone’s butt.”_

_“Amelia, Becca, Chris, we’re back,” Camila shouted. Central City Orphanage was a rather large 2 story building. The entryway and dining room was the biggest with the kitchen to its right. On the other side of the dining room was where potential parents could meet with the caretakers and their potential choice to adopt, and this room was connected by the living room. Down the hall was the cribs for the infants and bedrooms for the caretakers. The stairs from the kitchen led to the second floor where there were two large bedrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys._

_Amelia stood in the kitchen doorway. “Hola chicas! How was school?”_

_“Never-ending,” Sally replied._

_“Right, tonight’s the night for the big Particle Accelerator. Chris found a blanket you can use for the picnic. It’s by the backdoor.” She gestured towards the living room._ _“Y tú, Mila, ¿cómo fue tu prueba hoy?”_

_Camila shrugged. “Pasé.”_

_The caretakers at CCO had picked favorites in the four eldest children and subsequently taught them their native language during their childhood. Amelia’s favorite was Camila, Chris’s favorites were Sam and Eli, and Becca’s favorite was Sally._

_“Hallo ihr beiden,” Becca said as she entered the dining room with one of the infants, George, who was tossing around in her arms. “Könntest du George halten? Er wird sich nicht beruhigen.”_

_“Ja, sicher.” Sally carefully took baby George from Becca’s arms and he stopped flailing._

_“I saw that it might storm tonight so you might want to take an umbrella,” Becca said._

_“Thanks,” Camila said, “Where’s Chris?”_

_“He’s warning the kids about the storm and letting them know that thunder is nothing to worry about.”_

_Sally nodded. “What can we do to help tonight?”_

* * *

 

_Sally, Camila, Sam, and Eli sat on a large fleece blanket on the yard outside of the orphanage. Eli and Sam were eating their second slice of pizza, Camila was receiving text updates of the football game, and Sally was looking at the direction of STAR Labs. All four of them were huddled under a large umbrella._

_“When will something cool happen,” Eli asked with a mouth full of pizza._

_“They turned on the Particle Accelerator ten minutes ago,” Sally explained, “this is it.”_

_“What? You mean we’ve been sitting outside soaking our butts for nothing?” Sally shrugged._

_Camila raised her fist in the air, excited. “We’re leading thirteen to seven!”_

_“Isn’t it the third quarter by now?”_

_“Yes, this game is so good!”_

_“I wanna go inside,” Sam whined._

_“Then head back inside. No one’s forcing you to be here,” Sally said._

_“I wanted the pizza.”_

_A sudden boom was heard, and a fiery explosion was seen coming from STAR Labs. Sally stood up._

_“Finally,” Sam exclaimed._

_“That is so sick,” Eli said._

_“Is that supposed to happen,” Camila asked._

_“Nope,” Sally responded, “Get inside the house. Come on, guys.” Sally dragged the eager twins from the yard into the living room. Camila attempted to stand up but fell over._

_“My foot’s stuck!”_

_Sally ran to where Camila was lying in the mud and held out her hand. The force from the explosion pushed Sally onto Camila. The power in the orphanage went out. Sally caught herself on her hands and knees to prevent smushing Camila and simultaneously was struck by lightning, in the middle between her shoulder blades. Sally screamed for what felt like an hour until it past through her body and was grounding the electricity into the earth. She rolled onto her side next to Camila, breathing heavy._

_“Hey, I didn’t crush you under the weight of my body?”_

_Camila groaned. “No, I’m fine. Are you okay?”_

_Sally shifted her weight onto her hands and knees. “I think I was just struck by lightning.”_

* * *

 

“Is this it,” Sally asked Cisco as they parked the mobile research van on the long stretch of runway at the Ferris Airlines Testing Center.

“Yep. Best place to discover how fast you can run.” Cisco exited the van from the driver’s side to assist Caitlin and Dr. Wells with setting up. Sally got out from the passenger side, watching Cisco lay down a wooden sheet on the stairs in front of the door to allow Dr. Wells out of the van. She walked over toward the two men.

“I don’t think I can run, at least, not as fast as Barry can.”

Dr. Wells raised an eyebrow. “Have you tried?”

“Well…I mean… I’ve had gym classes where I ran a mile and nothing exciting had happened.”

“How fast was your mile,” Cisco asked.

Sally shrugged. “Twelve minutes.”

“Five miles per hour.” Cisco nodded, serious.

As Dr. Wells got off the van Cisco removed the wood so that Caitlin could get down the stairs. Caitlin came out carrying a folded table. “If anything, you won’t accidentally hit someone with the speed force out here,” Caitlin said, “Could you set this up over there?” She handed Sally the table and gestured to a spot a few feet in front of the van’s door. As she worked, Caitlin and Cisco worked to set up a tent around her and Dr. Wells waited by the front of the van. Once the table was unfolded and sturdy, Sally leaned against the van as Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and Cisco set up all of the instruments.

Everything was set, or so Sally thought, when Cisco exclaimed that they forgot the most important thing. He ran inside of the van and soon came out with a bright red, skin-tight polyester suit. It flapped in with a November wind.

“I’m not wearing that,” Sally said immediately.

“What? It’s what Barry wore the first time he was out here. It’ll decrease friction while you run.”

“First, I’m still absolutely certain that I don’t have super speed and second, I spent hours picking out this outfit.” She received questioning looks from the three scientists. Sally glanced down at the black leggings and green tank top that said, ‘Fitness whole pizza in my mouth’ and subconsciously fixed her bun. “What? It’s my first day of the internship. Dress to impress.”

Caitlin turned to look at Cisco and the suit. “Has that even been washed?”

Cisco sniffed the fabric, trying and failing to not gag. “Y-yes.”

“You don’t have to wear the suit,” Wells interjected.

“Thank you.” As Cisco reentered the van to put the suit away, Caitlin approached Sally and placed stickers on her heart and above her elbow on both arms, along with a belt that looked identical to the one on the horrendous skin suit around her waist.

“These will help measure your vitals and these,” Caitlin handed Sally a pair of gloves, “will measure your energy output.” Lastly, she was given black elbow pads, kneepads, and a helmet. “For Safety,” Caitlin explained.

“Gloves?” Sally asked, “shouldn’t the energy be measured at my ankles or somewhere closer to my feet while I run?”

“Between you and me, I don’t think you have super-speed. At least, not yet,” Caitlin added when she noticed the disappointed look on Sally’s face, “Barry started to notice his powers days after waking up from his coma.” Sally made a mental note to ask about the coma later. Caitlin left to assist Cisco lay out a line of rope along the runway a good distance from the equipment.

After watching the scientists for a few moments, Sally turned towards the table and approached Dr. Wells. “Dr. Wells?” He looked up from a computer screen with a warm smile. “Do you think I have super-speed?”

He leaned back in his chair, still smiling. “I certainly believe you have the potential to run as fast as Mr. Allen, you just haven’t unlocked it yet.” Sally nodded and felt tension leave her body that she hadn’t felt earlier. She hadn’t realized how much she had wanted to be a speedster. She hadn’t even known it was a possibility until she had learned that her powers were similar to the Flash’s. She smiled back at Dr. Wells. “Thank you.”

A few moments later Caitlin and Cisco had jogged back to the tent. “Do you see the rope down there on the runway?” Cisco asked Sally.

Sally squinted in the direction that Cisco was pointing. “Barely.”

“Okay it’s placed exactly a quarter of a mile from the starting block.” Sally briefly glanced at the starting block in front of them. “Sprint there and back and we’ll see if there’s any measurable change to signify if you used superspeed at any point during the run. I’ll time you to see how fast you were overall.”

“You want me to sprint half a mile?” Cisco nodded. “Okay just tell me when I should go.” Sally knelt down at the block, Cisco was visible on the right side of the runway. He sent a thumb’s up in the direction of the van. Sally mentally psyched herself up to run the fastest half mile of her life, whether it was enhanced by superspeed or not. She assumed Cisco received a thumb’s up in reply as he shouted, “On your mark, get set, GO!”

Sally launched herself off of the block and ran as fast as a non-athletic 18-year-old. As Sally pushed herself, she quickly realized that she wasn’t seeing or feeling anything differently. On the way back, she definitely noticed that she was slower, and her lungs and legs were aching, but she pushed on trying to unlock some unknown potential.

It felt like an eternity had passed when she returned to the mobile lab. Sally sat down on the cold pavement, glad that she had left her jacket in the passenger seat of the van. Caitlin passed her an unopen water bottle. “Thanks.” She quickly gulped down most of the liquid and gasped for air. “How fast was I?”

Cisco glanced at the stop watch, “Five minutes and 28.1 seconds.” Sally lifted the water bottle.

“Whoo! That’s the fastest I’ve ever been.”

“Did you feel anything weird?” Dr. Wells asked.

“…No?” Sally replied, “Did you guys observe anything weird?”

“Nope,” Caitlin said, “Everything looked normal.”

“There were some spikes of energy during your run,” said Dr. Wells, “but—”

“But not enough to indicate I have superspeed,” Sally finished, dejectedly. Dr. Wells nodded.

“Hey just because you don’t have distance superspeed doesn’t mean you don’t have it in bursts,” Cisco explained.

Sally finished the rest of her water. “So how do we discover if I have that?” Cisco ran off inside the van and came back carrying a stack of plastic disks. “Frisbees?”

“I’ll throw them at you and you’ll dodge them.” Sally raised an eyebrow, and grudgingly stood up.

“Okay just give me two more minutes to catch my breath.” When she was ready, Sally moved the starting block, so she wouldn’t trip over it and nodded to Cisco.

Cisco threw the first disk and Sally tried not to move until the second before it would hit her. She was hoping that it would trigger some sort of super human reflexes, but she just was hit in the stomach. Unfortunately, the second and third shots resulted in the frisbees striking Sally’s body.

After the fourth Frisbee contacted her body, Sally was impressed. “You would be phenomenal at Kan-Jam,” she told Cisco.

Cisco beamed at her. “I love that game!” After he threw the fifth and last frisbee in his hands he shouted, “Slot shot!” Cisco had aimed for Sally’s shins, and at the last second Sally jumped in order to avoid the frisbee. She didn’t expect that she would be launched 50 feet in the air.

Sally was amazed by the feeling of weightlessness she had experienced. However, the feeling was quickly interrupted when she started to fall back to the earth. Red lightning flashed in her eyes and Sally started screaming.

The one thought she had, besides “I’M FALLING!” and “I’M GOING TO DIE!” was “Land with both feet!” so she made sure that her feet were leveled when she hit pavement. Then she bent her knees instinctively. When she looked at the scientists, they were staring. It took some time for Sally to realize that she ended up five stories in the air because of her powers. “That’s new,” she said.

“Oh my God that was amazing!”

Sally looked over at Cisco who currently had his hands running through his hair. “Uh, thanks?” Her legs felt like jelly as she walked towards him and the tent. “What happened?”

“There was a spike in energy output from your entire body,” Dr. Wells explained, “The energy must’ve increased the acceleration of the muscles in your legs, thereby increasing the Force of your jump to be significantly greater than the force of gravity, causing you to jump 16.22 meters in the air.”

“Okay. I can...actually understand that, simple high school physics. Though why do I feel all jittery?”

“Adrenaline,” Caitlin said, “There was a spike of adrenaline in your body along with an increase of your heartbeat.”

Sally nodded. “I did think I was going to fall to my death for, ya know, most of it.”

“A completely natural reaction. With practice I’m sure you’ll get over it soon.”

“And you stuck the landing!” Cisco said as he rejoined them, holding the collected frisbees. “You’ve got to do that again!”

“It was pretty amazing,” Wells relented, “but your going to want to learn how to roll with the fall so you can keep moving. That and we do need to practice shooting moving targets.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be ready to go after I stop shaking,” said Sally, “I’m gonna grab my coat.”

An hour and several broken Frisbees later, it started pouring. Another half hour and several more Frisbees were broken before there was a risk to the instruments and training had ended. The three scientists quickly loaded the mobile lab and Sally scavenged through the mud for Frisbee parts. After stopping at Big Belly Burger’s Drive-Thru for lunch, Sally was dropped off at her dorm. She had opened her door when Dr. Wells spoke up behind her. “I’ll send you a list of exercises you should do to ensure that you don’t hurt yourself when landing.”

“Oh, thank you, and thanks for the lift.” Sally grabbed her Big Belly bag and drink and left the van.

She was shocked when she entered her room and saw all of her friends gathered in the room and just stared at her. Meredith sat on her bed with her boyfriend, Taylor, and sitting on Sally’s bed was Taylor’s roommate, Adam, and Dru, who lived next door to Sally and Meredith. “Hey guys, did I forget we were hanging out today?”

“Sally, sit down,” Meredith said seriously. She gestured towards Sally’s desk chair, which had been relocated from her desk to between the two beds.

“What’s going on?” Sally asked as she sat down. “Wait, is this an intervention?” The four teens failed to meet her eyes. Sally gaped. “W-wait, it is? For what?”

“Your internship at STAR Labs,” Dru explained, “It’s not good for you.”

Sally spluttered. “Not good for me? How is obtaining an internship at a prestigious lab not good for me?”

Adam spoke up. “They destroyed this city and they’re probably going to do it again. We just don’t want you to get involved in that.”

“Uh huh, sure,” Sally snapped, “Thing was none of you experienced the explosion. I did.” Sally was oddly pleased as none of her friends could look at her. She looked over at Taylor and Meredith. “You guys were at home celebrating Chanukah with you families in Detroit and Seattle.” She turned to the teens on her bed. “Dru, you spent the holidays with your family at Disney. And Adam, you’re from Keystone, and the closest to what happened, but your aunt was unscathed by the explosion.

“I was struck by lightning, I lost my best friend. If any of us knows the mistake’s made that night, it’s me.” Her eyes widened, and she slumped back in her chair. “Which is why it’s not the reason you guys don’t want me at STAR Labs.”

A thick, heavy silence fell over the dorm room. Sally kept waiting for a response. When none came she reached for her bag and laptop. She felt red lightning flash in her eyes, but she managed to close them before it was noticeable. “Right, I’m gonna go study in the library.” Sally was opening the door when Meredith spoke up.

“Sally wait!” Sally turned and saw her standing in front of the chair. “I might’ve told Charlie about it at practice. And she told Laura who told Makayla, and by the end of practice everyone knew, including—”

“Including Dominique,” Sally finished. Dominique Bardin ran the freshmen gossip column in the CCU Tribune.

Meredith handed over a newspaper. “They’re printing this tomorrow.” Sally flipped directly to the gossip pages to see her school ID and name glaring at her from the page.

“Why would she do this?”

“It’s controversial information,” Dru said as stood up and joined them. “Not only will this rile emotions of everyone on campus there’s a face and a name to go with it, like with celebrity scandals.”

But I’m not a celebrity, Sally though bitterly. “Why does she hate me?”

“Because her boyfriend keeps sneaking looks at you,” Taylor explained. Sally raised an eyebrow. “What? He likes blondes.”

Sally sighed. “I’m assuming it’s too late to make her change her mind and rewrite the column?” Sally dropped her bag next to her desk and took off her jacket. “I should at least talk to her. What room is she in?”

“216,” Meredith answered.

“Thanks.” Sally left with the CCU Tribune.

When she reached the room and knocked, she was answered by Dominique, who was slightly shorter than Sally. “Can I help you?”

“What is this about?” Sally held the newspaper open on the gossip page.

“Oh that! It’s an excellent piece of gossip.” She turned and sat on her bed. Sally took that as an invitation to enter. “I really should thank you for that. STAR Labs! It’s almost been a year so it’s not crass, but recent enough to still get people talking.”

“Okay, but was the picture necessary? Now everyone is going to be staring at me tomorrow, whether they know me or not.”

“Do. Not. Worry.” Dominique emphasized each word with a bounce. “Everyone’s going to know who you are, no matter what.”

“Gee, thanks,” Sally growled out.

“Don’t mention it,” she said with a smile. When she noticed Sally’s bitter face, she sighed. “Will you relax. Next week I’m going to have a completely new topic to gossip about. People will forget by, like, Thursday.”

“People are still going to hate me for five days,” Sally emphasized.

Dominique bit her lips. “I wouldn’t have talked about you in the column if I wasn’t certain you could handle it.”

Sally exhaled. “Are you sure this isn’t personal?” Dominique’s face darkened.

“Why would it be?” she spat.

“No reason.” Dominique started walk towards her and Sally backed away until she was back in the doorway of the dorm. She grabbed the newspaper from Sally’s hands.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to handle this week like the Big Girl you are.” She patted Sally’s left cheek, twice, harder than necessary. Sally instantly backed up against the hallway wall, eyes closed to hide the flash of yellow in her eyes, illustrating her disgust at the contact. Dominique closed her door during that time.

As Sally made her way back up to her own room she wondered if she could purposefully infect herself with the flu, so she could hide from everyone during the week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I update slow but I will never give up on a story


	3. ...Now How Do I Land?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sally's second day of training reveals more information about her powers and how'd she hold up against a battle with the Flash

When Sally woke up, the events of the day before had hit her like a freight train powered by the Speed Force. She glanced at her phone which was currently blasting her morning alarm at 8 o’clock sharp. If she hurried, she could be off campus before everyone else woke up and she would be the most despised student of Central City University. She dressed and was ready in twenty minutes, the entire time wishing she could do the tasks at superhuman speed.

Sally had received an email from Dr. Wells after her conversation with Dominique asking her to come in Sunday with the list of workouts and stretches she should do to prevent injury during landings. She left her dorm and headed straight to Jitters for a breakfast sandwich before getting on the bus at 8:30 and walking into STAR Labs fifteen minutes early. She was surprised to find that Caitlin was the only person in the cortex.

“Wow am I that early?”

Caitlin looked up from her computer. “Nope. Dr. Wells and Cisco just headed to the Testing Facility early to set some things up.” The look in her eyes reminded Sally of the look that her 6th grade social studies teacher had right before she had a surprise, end-of-school pizza party. Sally narrowed her eyes. “I could give you a ride up there, if you want?”

“Sure.” The two woman left STAR Labs and Sally sat in the passenger seat of Caitlin’s car. “So why did Cisco and Dr. Wells leave so early?”

“Barry’s going to be helping you with your training,” Caitlin said as the car left it’s parking spot.

Sally narrowed her eyes again. “And that’s why they left early?” Caitlin averted her eyes to the steering wheel.

“…No.” When Caitlin didn’t elaborate more, Sally just looked out the window. The rest of the ride was filled with amiable silence. Sally spent the entire time watching the landscapes of outer Central City pass by them, so when she viewed the Ferris Air Testing Facility, she turned to face Caitlin to ask what the rainbow mound was, she was surprised to see the doctor visibly upset.

“Caitlin, you okay?”

“Why are you asking, because I’m not smiling,” she snapped.

“No, Jesus no!” Sally recoiled as Caitlin’s phrase brought forward several memories of catcallers saying she should smile over the summer. “I’m asking because you look distressed. Do you wanna talk about it?”

Caitlin sniffled and parked her car next to the mobile lab on the opposite side of where the equipment was set up. “Sorry,” she paused, “when we were training Barry last month, he noticed that I didn’t smile much.” With the car parked, Caitlin turned to face Sally, her eyes glistening with tears.

Sally eyebrow’s shot up into her hairline. “He said that!? Why are men so emotionally inept?”

“I explained to him that it was because the Particle Accelerator killed my fiancé and ruined my career.” She exhaled heavily. “Sorry that I snapped at you. I was thinking about Ronnie just now.”

“Ronnie’s your fiancé?” Caitlin nodded. “Well, I’ve only known you for a few days now, but I can already tell that you’re an amazing woman, and an amazing woman would only fall for an equally amazing guy.” Caitlin chuckled. “I don’t know where he is now, but what I do know is that an amazing guy like that would not want you to spend the rest of your life miserable. He’d want you to live the best and happiest life possible, even if he’s not there with you.”

Caitlin was silent.

“At least, that’s what Granny told me when a kid had stepped on my pet ladybug.” When Caitlin still didn’t respond, Sally back tracked. “In hindsight, the two situations are probably very different. I’ll give you some space.” As Sally turned to open the door, Caitlin placed a hand on her shoulder and Sally turned back.

“Your Granny was a wise woman,” Caitlin said, and Sally enveloped her in a hug.

“If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here.”

“Thank you.” They released from the hug and went to join the three men gathered by the tent.

As Sally and Caitlin came around to the other side of the mobile lab, Sally squealed, drawing the attention of Cisco, Dr. Wells, and Barry in his suit with the cowl down.  Sally failed to notice their eyes on her as she couldn’t take her eyes off the plastic, multi-colored monstrosity in front of her. “You guys have a bouncy castle!” The floor of the castle was a bright red. Each corner of the square balloon was decorated with yellow turrets with blue cone roofs. The “walls” of the structure was simple black netting with only one entry/exit way in the form of a matching red slide. “I love it!”

“It’s a rental,” Cisco explained, “so don’t break it.” Sally stopped her approach towards the castle and turned to face him.

“How would I break it?” Sally asked, genuinely confused.

Dr. Wells came out from behind the equipment. “We figured that it would be best for you to land on something when we practice the tuck and roll so that you don’t break anything. Did you do the exercises?”

“Yeah.”   Saturday night had been leg day for Sally, with most of her exercises being squats, lunges, calf raises, jump rope, and variations of. “Are they to help me jump higher?”

“Well yes,” he said, “but more importantly, they’re going to prevent injury when you land.”

Sally pointed her index finger at Dr. Wells. “Smart.”

“Of course, there’s always a chance that you have accelerated healing like Barry.”

Sally choked on her spit. Once her breathing was back to normal, she stared at Barry.

“You have accelerated healing?”

He shrugged. “It helps to not have unexplainable bruises when I go back to work.”

Sally nodded. “Convenient.” She looked back at the monstrous structure. “So, what are we going to start with?”

“Landing practice,” Cisco said. Red flashed across Sally’s eyes as she felt pressure behind them. “Woah, what was that?” he asked.

“What?”

Caitlin walked closer to Sally. “Your eyes, they lit up with red lightning.” Sally saw Barry and Dr. Wells staring as well. Apparently, everyone had seen it.

“Oh, that.” Sally looked down at her feet. “It’s been happening since the particle accelerator explosion. I thought it was just a side affect of being struck by lightning.” She gestured vaguely. “Though isn’t this all a side effect?”

Dr. Wells approached and stopped next to Cisco. “Do it again.”

Sally exhaled and recalled her encounter with Dominique the day before. She felt not only the disgust she experienced when Dominique touched her, but also the anger knowing that her article is out today and will probably ruin Sally’s college life at very least. She felt the pressure again and her eyes flashed with both red and yellow lightning.

Caitlin shined a penlight into her eyes. “Do you know why it happens?”

“Usually when I get particularly strong emotions.” Caitlin moved the light across Sally’s eyes. “Do I follow the light or…?”

“Focus on me.” Sally shifted her vision to stare at Caitlin’s nose.

“That is so cool!” Cisco exclaimed.

Sally raised an eyebrow while still looking at Caitlin. “Doesn’t Barry do it too?”

“Mine doesn’t change color.”

“Oh.”

“It appears we have more tests to run,” Dr. Wells said as he moved back underneath the tent. Caitlin turned off the penlight.

“There’s nothing physically abnormal with your eyes from what I can see.”

“Now that that’s settled, let’s get you ready to jump!”

Sally took off her jacket, revealing the outfit she chose to wear for the day. She had put her hair up in a bun again and was wearing another pair of black leggings. Instead of a gym tank top, she wore a light blue t-shirt that read “I was struck by lightning and all I got was this stupid t-shirt.” When Barry saw it, his face lit up.

“Oh my god, that’s amazing!”

Sally blushed. “Thanks. I actually might have an extra, if you want it.” Barry laughed.

“I would love it! Although, it’s not really true for either of us.”

“Yeah.” She held her right hand up. “Metahuman high five?” Barry high fived her as Caitlin came forward and handed the belt from yesterday that Sally put on her waist, as well as the stickers. Cisco quickly joined them with the gloves, helmet, kneepads, and elbow pads.

Sally placed each of the safety equipment on the respective parts of her body, while Caitlin placed the stickers in the same locations as the day before. “Wait,” Barry said, “she doesn’t have to wear that skin suit?”

“Well you see, Barry,” Cisco explained, “when you don’t run faster than the speed of sound, you don’t need to wear a skin-tight suit.”

Sally guffawed. “You were the one that wanted me to wear it yesterday.”

“Yeah well that thing smells so bad I genuinely thought about burning it for a solid ten minutes.”

“Or you could wash it,” Caitlin suggested.

“Or we could hide it away in the morgue where no one can find it.”

“You have a morgue?” Barry and Sally asked at the same time.

“It’s not a real morgue, we just call it a morgue because … it has … dead bodies. It’s not important. What is important is this.” He handed Sally would looked like an open pocket watch.

“Uh thanks, Cisco. What is it?”

“It’s a wireless altimeter. It’ll measure the height you jump at and wirelessly send the data to our computers.”

“Perfect.” Sally clipped the altimeter to the waist of her leggings. “So, what’s the plan.”

“You’ll basically jump and try to land in the castle,” Cisco explained.

“Alright, sounds easy enough.” Sally turned to face the castle and took a few steps back. She lunged at the attraction and aimed herself towards the top. Red and yellow speed force lightning burst out from the bottom of her feet. She put all her concentration on landing.

She underestimated the height of the castle.

Her legs hit the top causing her to flip. Her back contacted the opposite wall of the castle and she fell onto the blown-upped floor with an audible thump. Sally laid face down on the plastic.

“Ow,” she said without moving.

“If you break that, it’s coming out of your salary,” Cisco shouted at her. Sally lifted her head.

“I’m being paid?”

“You won’t be if you pop that castle.”

Sally groaned and slowly stood up and with as much grace as one can have when walking on a bouncy castle, went towards the exit and slid down the slide. She went back to where she jumped the first time. Sally felt a gloved hand on her shoulder.

“You got this,” Barry said when they made eye contact. Sally nodded, determined. Barry took a few steps back and Sally prepared to jump again.

When she jumped, Sally succeeded in getting over the wall of the castle. She also succeeded in getting over the opposite wall, missing the castle completely. She attempted to land with both feet once she realized the castle was behind her, but she tumbled backwards before she could regain her balance. “Ow,” she said again.

Barry was at her side instantly with Caitlin, Cisco, and Dr. Wells heading their way. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Sally’s said through clenched teeth. “Nothing that I haven’t felt before.” Caitlin reached the speedsters.

“Where do you feel pain?”

“My tailbone and my ankle. Mostly my ankle,” Sally replied, “feels like the time I went on a field trip to the ice rink with Mrs. Goodman.” Sally chuckled.

Cisco and Dr. Wells joined the group. “How far did I fall?” Sally asked them.

“7.67 meters,” Cisco said, “Only half as high as you went yesterday.” Caitlin gingerly removed Sally’s right sneaker and sock and started to wrap it in gauze.

Barry’s eyes widened. “You went twice as high yesterday? That’s amazing!”

“Thanks, but it’d be cooler if I could land.”

Caitlin finished wrapping Sally’s ankle. “This should heal in a few minutes, you should probably take a break.”

Sally looked at Caitlin like she had turned blue. “It does not take a few minutes to heal a twisted ankle.”

“It does for you,” Dr. Wells explained, “Your cells have shown to have an accelerated healing factor.”

“And _when_ did you see my cells?”

“Thursday while you were unconscious,” he replied, unashamed. Sally raised an eyebrow and as Dr. Wells was just barely concealing his amusement.

“That does explain a lot, actually.” She sighed and relented. “I guess I could use some water.” Barry helped her to stand and walk towards the tent. Cisco offered his chair, but Sally declined. “It’s still a bit tender.” She opted to lean on one of the supports for the tent, the support closest to the castle.

Dr. Wells grabbed two plastic water bottles from the mobile lab. He placed one in his lap and maneuvered himself to throw the other one in Sally’s direction. His aim was off a few feet to her left and five feet higher than her head. She jumped for it, without thinking. Her body was parallel to the ground when she caught the bottle, she righted herself by flipping forward until her feet were below her and landed gracefully on her left foot. She undid the cap and took a drink, managing to turn back around toward the tent on one foot.

She saw Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry staring at her in awe and Dr. Wells hiding his smirk behind his own water bottle. “What?” Then her eyes widened as she realized what she had just done. “Holy shit. What just happened?”

Barry and Cisco laughed. “You weren’t aware of what you were doing?” said Caitlin.

Sally shook her head. “It was just … instinctual.”

“Fascinating.” Dr. Wells made his way over to her. “You were petrifying yourself before, overthinking it.”

“So, you’re saying that I shouldn’t think before I leap?”

“No of course not. What I’m saying is that the calculations you’re making in your head should be instantaneous,” he mused. Sally stared at him, completely confused as to where he was going with it. “We’ll talk about this later. Once your ankle is healed, try to jump into the castle with the same mentality as when you caught the bottle.” Sally attempted to remain in that mindset as Dr. Wells rolled back towards the instruments.

She absentmindedly sipped her water as she thought about it. After a minute had passed, she hobbled back to the tent with the others.

“Hey,” Barry said, “What did you mean when you learned about the accelerated healing and how it explained something?”

“Oh,” Sally said, surprised by the question, “When I was hit by lightning, I felt every cell that the lightning passed through burn, felt my heart stop for five seconds. When I was hit by the—what did you call it? Not the storm, but what was sent out during the explosion?”

“Dark matter,” Cisco said.

“Yeah, when I was hit by the black matter, it knocked me over. I caught myself on my hands and toes when the lightning hit.” She shakily exhaled. “It grounded itself through my hands and feet, but they didn’t scar. The only scar from that night is on my back.”

“What does it look like,” Caitlin asked.

Sally raised an eyebrow. “You looked at my cells, but not my back?”

Caitlin shrugged, and failed to hide her smirk. “Looking at your back without your consent would be highly immoral.”

Sally snorted. “It looks like lightning. I’m now the second orphan to have a scar in the shape of lightning in the history of the world.”

Cisco’s face lit up at the mention of Harry Potter. “What house are you?”

“Hufflepuff.”

“Girl, same!” He ran to Sally, and they high fived. Caitlin chose that time to approach them.

“I’m going to take another look at your ankle.” She guided Sally towards her chair, not giving her a chance to deny the offer. Sally sat in the folding the chair and Caitlin unwrapped the gauze. Caitlin touched and prodded the joint.

“How did you do that flip,” Cisco asked, “Did you do gymnastics?”

“No, it was just as instinctual as the actual jump.” Her eyes widened. “That doesn’t seem something that would be instinctual, would it?”

“We have plenty of time to figure it out,” Dr. Wells cut in.

Caitlin finished examining Sally’s ankle. “Did anything I do hurt?” Sally shook her head. “Then I’m certain that it’s fully healed.” Sally stared at her ankle in amazement, moving it every way she could with no pain.

“Why don’t you try to jump in the castle again?” Dr. Wells said, smiling.

Sally nodded, stood up, and walked towards the castle. It seemed to have grown during her short break. She stepped back from the castle, a few feet further than she had been in her past attempts. She took a running start. She was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t superspeed, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. The rubber of her shoes hit the pavement one last time still a few feet from the castle.

She jumped.

Her legs cleared the first wall as her body tilted to become parallel with the blown-up floor. She lost altitude once she made it over. Instead of flipping midair, she slowed it so that the flip finished as she tucked her chin and her shoulder brushed the floor. Her shoulder increased the momentum of her body and her body rolled until her feet were on the ground and she used the rest of the momentum to stand.

She threw her arms in the air. “Yes!”

Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco ran over to the bouncy castle, cheering.

“That was amazing!”

“That is how it is done!”

“That was, hands down, the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” Sally blushed with all the praise. She exited the castle as gracelessly as last time.

“Just because you could do it once,” Dr. Wells said once he joined them, “doesn’t mean you can do it again.”

“Well,” Sally said, suddenly full of confidence, “I guess I’m just going to have to do it again.”

Sally watched as Dr. Wells gave her the most genuine smile he had ever given her. “I guess you will.”

* * *

 

Sally had spent the next hour practicing landing in the castle, many of the landings with her falling instead of landing, much to her chagrin. Dr. Wells reported that she had properly landed for 71.67% of her jumps. She was taking another break, sitting on the ground, when Barry suggested they try something new.

“Why don’t you try going up against me?”

Sally choked on her water. “ _What?”_

He shrugged. “I think you could last in a fight against me.”

Sally stood up. “Why would you say that? You’ve been the flash for months and this is my second—”

“Third,” Cisco corrected.

“—Third day of being on this team.” Sally paused. “Wait, third?” she asked Cisco.

“Absolutely, that was some badass shit you did at STAR Labs. It counts.”

“I agree,” Dr. Wells said.

“But, but what about the moving target practice that we had planned?”

He smirked. “I am more than certain Mr. Allen will be an ample moving target.”

Sally looked down at Caitlin, who had been sitting next to her. “Caitlin? What do you think.” Caitlin stood up as well.

“I think you’re not giving yourself enough credit, and that Barry is the last person on the planet that will hurt you.” Sally sighed when she realized she was outvoted. She placed her water bottle on the ground.

Barry walked to the opposite side of the bouncy castle and Sally followed. “So how do we do this? Do we bow and walk ten paces?”

Barry chuckled. “Nah.” He and Sally stopped in the middle of the runway. “You just stand here…” Sally’s vision was filled with yellow lightning. “…and I’ll stand here,” Barry yelled from several yards away with his cowl on.

“Show off,” she murmured. Barry was suddenly surrounded by his lightning and Sally jumped over Barry and off to the right, barely missing him, and rolled when she landed. She turned to face Barry, who was standing where she used to be. “Some warning would have been nice!”

Barry shrugged, a grin never leaving his face. “It would’ve, but it also would be too easy.” He ran at her again.

Sally jumped backwards once she registered lightning again. She back flipped in the air before she landed. She laughed. “I didn’t know I could do that!” Barry laughed with her.

Seeing her chance, Sally lunged at Barry, who easily dodged her. Barry smirked. “Oh, so that’s how you want to do it?”

She smirked back, not immune to Barry’s enthusiasm. “You deserve it for going easy on me.”

Barry’s eyebrows shot up. “Okay,” he said cockily, “that’s how we’re going to do it.”

After that, Barry relentlessly pursued Sally after every jump, neither of them stopping. Sally was surprised that after a several minutes she wasn’t feeling even slightly exhausted from the non-stop jumping. It appeared that Barry wasn’t going to be able to reach her so long as she kept dodging him. She formulated a plan.

When Barry rushed towards her, she flipped over him instead of away, which is what she had been doing the entire time.

In that moment, the world seemed to slow. The motion of Sally’s body seemed to almost freeze in midair. The warm tingle she felt in her feet and her fingertips flowed through the rest of her body. Barry ran under her, but his signature lightning was gone, and what seemed to be a normal non-meta speeds.

These observations were pushed to the back of her mind as she focused on aiming at Barry. She shot her red and yellow lightning at Barry, directly hitting him in the back. Immediately after, the world sped up to its normal speed and Sally watched as Barry stumbled to a stop. Sally ran over to him.

“Barry, you okay?” He nodded. Dr. Wells, Cisco, and Caitlin were by his side rather quickly as well. “Sorry,” Sally apologized.

“Don’t be,” Barry said, bemused, “It… felt… good?”

Cisco stood in front of Barry. “Good how?” Caitlin began examining Barry for injuries.

“Like Sally injected caffeine directly into my veins.”

Barry turned to Sally. “How were you able to do that?” He asked, referring to the direct hit. Sally shrugged.

“The world seemed to slow down,” she explained, “including you. You went from superspeed to running at a normal human speed. But everything else was practically at a standstill, including myself.”

Barry blinked. “That’s what it’s like when I run, except I can usually move.”

“It appears that Miss Sylvester has enhanced perception, like Barry,” Dr. Wells mused.

“I haven’t found any external injuries,” Caitlin said and stepped back from Barry. “You sure you don’t have any pain?”

“Pretty sure.”

“I don’t like it.” Everyone turned to look at Sally. “The enhanced perception thing,” she explained, “I might be able to perceive things faster, but I can’t move my body faster. I’m just as slow as anything else that’s not moving at super-speeds.”

“Well, you have the rest of the semester to get faster,” Caitlin said.

Sally wasn’t fully convinced but relented anyway. “Yeah, I guess.” Sally glanced down at her feet before instantly perking up. “What are the odds that there’s another speedster in Central City.” It was at that moment that Sally noticed Barry looking extremely uncomfortable though she doubted it was from anything from her training. She decided not to say anything.

Dr. Wells shifted in his chair. “How about we focus on your lightning blasts again?” Sally agreed, relieved that the attention was being drawn away from whatever she stumbled upon.

* * *

 

They decided to return to STAR Labs around lunchtime. Cisco and Dr. Wells drove the van back to the lab while Caitlin grabbed Big Belly Burger for the five of them. Barry ran back and gave Sally a lift. It wasn’t until he reentered Central City two seconds later that Sally focused and felt the warm tingle return throughout her. She couldn’t help but marvel as the familiar bustle of the streets was at a standstill as they whizzed by.

“Is this what it’s like when you run?” Sally startled herself when she heard her voice, not realizing that she can speak.

Barry attempted to shrug with Sally in his arms. “Pretty much.”

A particularly strong arc of lightning licked her arm, she felt the warmth from the speed force concentrate to wear her and Barry’s body made contact. “It’s so peaceful,” she mused.

“I haven’t noticed.”

Sally almost gave herself whiplash. “You haven’t?”

Barry laughed. “I tend to focus on not hitting cars and people then looking at the scenery.”

“Oh, well I can’t fault you for that, I guess,” she said as she refocused on where Barry was heading. She saw STAR Labs swell in her vision until they had entered the building. Barry stopped in the cortex and placed Sally back on her two feet.

She glanced around the empty room. “How long until they get back?”

Barry shrugged and changed out of his suit. “Ten, twelve minutes,” he guessed.  The two waited around for the other three scientists. Eventually Cisco followed Dr. Wells into the cortex and, five minutes later, Caitlin walked in carrying three Big Belly Burger bags and five drinks in a carboard cup holder. She passed out everyone’s food, handing Sally a Triple Double with fries and a coke.

She sat down on the steps leading up to what she had been told was Caitlin’s lab, Caitlin, Cisco, and Dr. Wells sat on the computers while Barry sat next to her. She took a bite from the burger and internally moaned. After she had swallowed, Sally asked, “So what else will I be doing as a part of my internship, besides the training and the eventual superhero-ing?”

“We could teach you every program on these beauties,” Cisco said, gesturing to the computer screens in front of him, “so you could support Barry behind the scenes if needed.”

“Brilliant idea, Cisco,” Dr. Wells said. Sally took a sip of her coke as he talked. “We could also use some help in feeding the imprisoned meta-humans.”

Sally choked on the liquid, Barry help by pounding on her back. “I’m sorry,” she said once she regained proper use of her lungs, “What?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry's back! Also I suck at summaries (all of them). I promise that the story will get back on track with Flash vs Arrow in the next chapter. 
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated! :)


	4. YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CI- *cough* ow (Flash vs Arrow)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Sally's hell week starts to improve, Oliver Queen visits Central City and Barry gets whammied by a meta, resulting in Sally getting her first look at what it's like to be a hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! This chapter follows the episode Flash vs Arrow with only 2-3 scenes taking straight from the episode, unlike the first. Also this chapter is almost twice as long as the others (oops)

The rest of Sally’s hell week went as well as she had expected. She had isolated herself in her room in the mornings and nights to avoid the people who glared in her direction, which was most of her classmates and her professors. She only left her room for her classes, to grab food, and internship training at STAR Labs. Normal internship training, like how to safely use the technology, everyone’s usual coffee order from Jitter’s and their usual burger orders from Big Belly Burger, and how to feed the metahuman locked up in the basement. Okay, not so normal, but her eyes glow red when she’s angry so normal is now relative. No one sat next to her in even her most crowded lectures, except for the one overly amiable guy in her US History class.

* * *

 

_Sally sat down alone at her usual desk in the lecture hall, the desk’s around her were empty since everyone now avoided her like a leper. It had started in her first class of the week and was a painful reminder of the infamous article. It had happened in every class since so she expected it to happen again. Sally had determined that the best way to avoid the stares, glares, and whispers was to study for a potential pop quiz, which this class was infamous for._

_Sally was so set on avoiding everyone around her that she didn’t react when someone’s shadow stretched across her notes. “Is this seat taken?” a masculine voice on her left asked._

_“No,” she replied without looking up. She wasn’t sure which seat they had meant, but she knew every seat that was within five feet of her wasn’t taken._

_“May I sit here?” they asked again. This time Sally looked up from her notes to see skinny guy with black hair gelled back with evident care. He was gesturing to the seat immediately on her left. She raised an eyebrow._

_“You want to sit next to me,” she asked in disbelief._

_“Yeah,” he said defensively, “what’s so bad about that?”_

_Sally chuckled. “You must not read the newspaper.”_

_“No, I do, but it’s not like you caused the explosion at STAR Labs.”_

_“You wouldn’t be thinking that if you were a local student,” Sally muttered._

_“But I am. Born and raised in Central. I just think that other locals are too sensitive and can’t get over something that happened over ten months ago.”_

_Sally smiled at him, relieved to have found a stranger who didn’t think she was a monster. “Feel free to sit there.”_

_The man set down his bag next to the desk and continued, “I’m sure last year all of these fakers would have given their right arm to obtain an internship at STAR Labs just last year.” He sat down next to her and held out his right hand. “Axel Walker.”_

_Sally shook it. “Sally Sylvester.” She quickly realized her mistake and blushed. “But you knew that,” she added._

_“Good morning class,” their professor projected from the front of the large room, “Today seems like a beautiful day for a partner pop quiz.” The entire class groaned. “Take out a blank piece of paper, find a partner, and clear your desks.”_

_Sally and Axel quickly followed the instructions. “Do you wanna be partners,” Axel asked with a grin._

_Sally found the grin contagious and smiled back. “Sure yeah,” she replied while grinning, “partners.”_

* * *

 

After that class they had gotten smoothies together, and that night they had dinner together. They had only met on Wednesday and it had been the first time Sally had eaten food in public since the newspaper had been published Sunday. She learned that Axel was a junior with a major in engineering and a minor in chemistry. She could see something more coming out of this relationship but planned to push it to the back of her mind until finals were over.

Thursday was looking to be better than Tuesday. As Dominique promised, most people had already forgotten about the article and weren’t glaring at her as she walked to her morning class and some of her classmates sat near her during her organic chemistry lecture. Adding the bizarre bank robbery that the Flash had appeared at occurring halfway through the lecture, Sally had become old news. Caitlin had texted her asking her to come to the lab earlier than she normally would to feed Kyle Nimbus, so she stopped by to pick up his usual meal before getting on the bus to STAR Labs.

Sally walked into the cortex in time to hear the beginning of Dr. Wells’s lecture “Anger, hate, aggression.” She watched him exit one of the side labs. Cisco was sitting at the computer near Barry’s suit while Barry stood next to him. Sally plopped down The Mist’s greasy lunch and drink to the left of the computers, being careful not to have the food touch any of the electronics.

“A Jedi craves not these things,” Cisco said in what Sally assumed was his best Yoda impression. He then asked in his normal voice when he didn’t get a reaction, “No one is feeling that quote,”

“I liked it,” Sally said, standing behind the console

“Thank you.”

Barry ignored Cisco as he walked to the main console. “Everyone in the bank went total savage for, like, five minutes.” He leant on the console and continued, “and then they were fine again.”

Dr. Wells turned to face Barry and Sally. “Anger can be a powerful emotion,” he explained, “If this metahuman can engender irrational feelings of anger in his victims, he can do a lot of damage.”

“Detective West helped me get a copy of the CAT Scans the hospital did on everyone at the bank,” Caitlin announced as she entered the cortex on Sally’s left. She inserted the flash drive into the right side of the desk and stood next to Sally. “Take a look.”

“Wait, why would a police detective give us this?” Everyone looked from the screens with the brain scans to Sally.

“Joe’s my foster dad,” Barry explained.

“Oh. And he knows about all of…?” Sally gestured towards Barry’s suit. Barry nodded. “Oh, cool,” she said, wondering how many more people knew.

“Well, look at this,” Dr. Wells said, focusing everyone’s attention back on the CAT Scans, “the emotion centers of the brains are still showing signs of being overwhelmed.”

“Particularly the area that controls executive function.” Barry, Cisco, and Sally glanced over at Caitlin. “That’s the part of the brain that stops people from doing whatever random and potentially destructive thing that pops into their head,” she explained.

Barry glanced back at Caitlin. “How do you think the meta does it to them?”

“That’s the half a million-dollar question.”

Sally felt her phone vibrate. She pulled it out from her pocket to find a notification on her screen; “Update Notification: 1 New Blog Entry” Sally noticed that Barry was doing the same. She unlocked her phone to find the vaguest blog post she’d ever seen. “Jitters tonight?”

“Hey, if you guys figure it out, just give me a call, okay?” Barry said, absentmindedly.

Caitlin looked over Sally’s shoulder to view her phone. “Is the Flash off to another rooftop rendezvous with Iris?”

“No,” Barry said, like a liar. Caitlin gave him a look of disbelief. “Yeah, but she probably just wants to ask me, I mean, him about metahuman stuff for her blog.”

“Oof,” Sally exclaimed, “please don’t talk about yourself in the fourth person.”

Caitlin ignored Sally. “Do you want some advice?”

Barry ran his hands through his hair. “No matter what I say, I’m getting the advice, right?”

“Don’t get involved. As the Flash or yourself. You don’t want to be the one to blame for their breakup.”

Sally didn’t even know Iris was in a relationship. “Okay. I hear you,” Barry said before he grabbed his suit and left the cortex at superspeed. Sally jumped, not expected the casual use of Barry’s powers.

“I don’t know why he’s in such a rush,” Sally said, “It’s only 11:30 in the morning, Iris wants to meet tonight.”

Caitlin sighed, “Barry has a huge crush on Iris West.”

“Wait, Iris West,” Sally said as things started to connect, “Is she the daughter of Detective West?”

“Yep,” Dr. Wells said, cleaning his glasses.

“So that makes her his—”

“Foster sister,” Caitlin finished for her.

“Right, and who’s she dating?”

“Detective West’s partner,” Cisco answered.

“Damn, that’s complicated.” The three scientists murmured in agreement. “I’m going to feed Nimbus now.” She grabbed the Big Belly Burger bag and cup and headed down to the Pipeline to muse over all the new information.

Once Sally reached the Pipeline entrance, she unlocked the entrance and the door opened to reveal the cavernous tube. She could see Nimbus in his gas phase floating in his cell across from the opening. Sally made her way across the crosswalk to his cell and jumped ten feet until she was hanging off the top of the cell with one hand, the other holding the food, her feet finding friction against the glass. She knew Cisco would feed him in the morning by bringing the cell down to ground level, but Sally found exercising her powers to be more convenient.

“Nimbus, I got your lunch.” A vague shape of a face appeared in the gas and looked at her. Sally sighed. “You know I can’t give you the food until you solidify.” The green gaseous face turned away from her, almost as if he was ignoring her. “Nimbus? Nimbus! Kyle!”

A solid human appeared in front of her almost instantaneously. “Now was that so hard?” Nimbus asked.

Sally jumped back on instinct and fell onto the walkway, landing on her tailbone. She groaned in pain. “Was that necessary?” She glared at the imprisoned metahuman.

Nimbus shrugged, a grin on his face. “I thought it was pretty funny.”

Sally rolled her eyes and grabbed the bag of food. “You’re just lucky that your lunch was smushed.” She jumped back up to the cell and unlocked a drawer that Cisco had installed for this purpose. She closed the drawer, jumped down and landed on her feet to pick up Nimbus’s drink. She jumped again and made sure that The Mist was still solid before she reopened the drawer to place in the large drink.

Kyle Nimbus stared inquisitively at his drink. “This is Raspberry Blast?”

Sally nodded. “I don’t think they’ve made any other drink that can stain your tongue blue.” Nimbus took a sip of his drink and nodded, satisfied. He grabbed the bag and sat down in the back of the cell.

“So, do you want to be called Kyle?” He nodded, his mouth full of burger. “I’ll let Cisco know.”

Nimbus swallowed. “No, not him, just you.”

“Yeah, that’s not creepy at all,” Sally muttered.

He gave her a smile with too much teeth. “I’m a creepy guy.”

“At least you’re aware,” Sally muttered more quietly so that he couldn’t hear her this time. She dropped down onto the walkway. “See you tonight,” she shouted.

Sally just barely heard the man reply. “Goodbye.”

* * *

 

When Sally entered CC Jitters the next morning to grab STAR Labs’ coffee order before her class, she didn’t expect to see Dominique sitting at a table with some of her friends. They made eye contact and Dominique smirked, before she went back to making doe eyes at some poor Jitters patron. Sally followed Dominique’s line of sight, doubting her eyes when she saw Oliver Queen. Once she got over the initial shock, Sally rolled her eyes. Of course, Dominique would have a crush on the Starling heir.

Sally got in line and placed the usual order. By the time the three coffees were prepared Sally saw Barry talking to Oliver Queen. She grabbed the coffees by the carboard cup holder and went over towards the table. She caught the last bit of their conversation. “It’s just a name.”

“Hey Barry,” Sally said as she approached them. She opened her backpack with one hand and pulled out a light blue shirt that was identical to the one she wore on Sunday. “Here’s the shirt I promised.”

Barry’s face lit up as he took the shirt. “Thanks!” Sally closed her backpack and was about to leave when Barry spoke up again. “Sally, this is Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak.” Sally shook both of their hands. “Felicity works with the Arrow.”

“Oh, that’s so cool!” Sally exclaimed.

“This is Sally Sylvester, she’s the new intern at STAR Labs.”

“So, she knows?” Felicity whispered.

Sally nodded. “Yeah I know.”

Iris brought two coffees to the table. “Hey.” Barry and Sally backed up so that Iris could reach the table and Felicity and Oliver leaned back so Iris could put down the drinks. “One non-fat latte, extra sugar for Felicity, and one coffee, black, for Oliver. I brewed you a fresh pot.” Sally recognized that Iris’s doe eyes were almost identical to Dominique’s. She looked over to where Dominique was sitting to find that she was no longer staring at Oliver Queen, but glaring at Sally.

“Thank you,” Oliver said, looking slightly uncomfortable.

“Yeah.” Iris turned to Barry. “Barry, um, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Bye.” Iris said only to Oliver. The two left, leaving Sally alone with Felicity and Oliver.

Sally, not wanting this situation to be awkward blurted out, “Would you like to help me be petty?”

“Yes,” Felicity said without missing a beat. Oliver nodded, more hesitant than Felicity.

Sally took a moment to compose herself and leaned forward onto the table. “Okay, do you see that blond girl sitting with her friends in the corner?”

“How could I not, she’s been staring at me the entire time.”

“Well, she attempted to ruin my life by writing about me in her gossip column of our university newspaper.”

Felicity loved the drama. “That bitch.”

“I was thinking if you could pretend to flirt with me, I could get her jealous.” Sally focused on the drinks. “If you want to of course. You don’t have to.” She swallowed. “I told you it was petty.”

Sally was about to take Oliver’s silence as a no, when she felt a hand on her upper arm. She looked up and saw that he was smiling at her. “I’d love to fake flirt with you.”

Sally’s whole face lit up. “Thank you!” Red lightning flashed in her eyes. “I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never fake flirted with anyone before”

“It’s easy, I do it all the time,” Oliver said, “It’s just like real flirting. First look up at me through your lashes and bite your lip.”

Sally followed his instructions. “Like this?”

Oliver nodded. “And now just laugh at everything I say.” Sally giggled. “So, what did she say in her column?”

“It wasn’t anything false.” Sally bit her lip. “She just made it public that I got the internship at STAR Labs, which is the most hated place in Central City so, everyone in Central City collectively hated me as well.”

Oliver laughed. Sally was offended until she realized it was part of the fake flirting. “You deserve to be petty.” Oliver continued to smile at Sally as he asked, “Felicity, how’s she looking.”

Felicity quickly glanced at the corner behind her. “If looks could kill, Sally would be dead right now. Is she a metahuman that kills people with her eyes?”

“God, I hope not,” Sally replied.

“I’ll walk you to the exit to complete the act.”

Sally was stunned. “You don’t have to.”

“I insist.” They got up, leaving Felicity alone at the table and walked to the main entrance of the store in silence.

Sally turned to face Oliver. “I really appreciate you doing this.”

“Felicity really seemed to like the idea.” He shrugged, and Sally understood immediately. “I’m going to hug you now.” He enveloped Sally in his arms and Sally awkwardly hugged back with the one arm and held the coffees away from Oliver. “Thank you,” she said. Oliver released her, and she opened the glass doors before she looked back and winked at Dominique.

* * *

 

“Hey, Sally,” Axel asked, “Do you want to get lunch together?” Their US History lecture had just finished, and they were rushing to leave the crowded hall with all the other students.

“Lunch? Right now?” Sally mulled over the request. “I’d love—” Sally’s phone rang. She glanced down at the screen and saw that it was Caitlin. “Caitlin, what’s up?”

_“Hey, Sally, are you free right now?”_

Sally glanced over at Axel. “Yeah,” she replied, “I am.”

_“Could you come over to STAR Labs. Barry is being a dick and you said I could talk to you if I ever needed someone to talk to.”_

“Yes, of course,” Sally said, “I’ll grab Nimbus’s lunch and I’ll head over. See ya.”

She ended the call and guiltily faced Axel. “I’m sorry, I have to be at STAR Labs ASAP.” Axel nodded, disappointed. “But I will definitely be free on Saturday for dinner. Axel immediately perked up.

“It’s a date,” he said.

Sally raised an eye brow and smirked. “A date?” Axel’s entire face reddened, and Sally swore it was the most adorable thing she had ever seen. She smiled to help ease him. “I’ll see you then!” She rushed out, leaving Axel alone in the empty lecture hall, and she headed for the nearest Big Belly Burger.

As she left with the Mist’s meal, she saw Barry waiting to cross the street to the CCPD building. “Barry! Hey!”

Barry turned to look when he heard his name and, if Sally didn’t know any better, she thought that he rolled his eyes and continued facing the street. Sally ran up to him.

“Barry, are you okay? Caitlin said you were acting weird.” Actually, Caitlin said he was acting like a dick. Sally only knew Barry for a few days, but even she knew that that was weird for Barry.

“Of course, _she_ would be worried,” Barry said, irritated. Being a dick, check.

Sally persisted. “She’s not the only one, we’re all concerned for you, Barry. Is everything okay?”

Barry scoffed and turned to face Sally. “Sure. If you’re so concerned for me,” his volume increased to a yell, “why are you trying to replace me?”

Sally was taken aback. “Replace you?” Sally said, shocked, “Barry, I could never replace you. I mean, you’re…” her voice dropped to a whisper, “ _the Flash_!” She continued in a normal volume, “You’re unique and absolutely you!”

“Yeah,” Barry shouted, “then why does it feel like you’re doing everything in your power to do just that?” The crossing light changed to walk, and Barry left as fast as possible without using his speed. Sally stood alone, mouth gaping. Sally took a few moments to digest what just happened and ran for the bus that just arrived at the bus stop a few feet away.

* * *

 

Once Sally made it to STAR Labs, she went immediately to the pipeline and was relieved to find Nimbus asleep. Then she rushed up to the cortex. She found Caitlin, Dr. Wells, and Cisco sitting at the computers, and Felicity on her phone pacing in the middle of the room.

“You were right, Caitlin,” Sally said as she entered the room, “Barry is definitely acting like a dick. He just yelled at me about how I was replacing him, or something.” Caitlin seemed slightly embarrassed that Sally said that she thought Barry was a dick out loud, especially after a perplexed look from Dr. Wells, but before she could say anything, Felicity spoke.

“Okay. I’ll call you back later.” Felicity ended her phone call and joined the STAR Labs employees. “That was the Arrow. He says Barry is acting strangely.”

Dr. Wells swiped a program off his screen. “Strangely, how?”

“Like a dick?” Sally suggested.

“He’s been whammied.” Sally jumped at the sudden voice. She turned to see a man with a detective’s badge. “He was acting angry. It was scary. And his eyes… they glowed.”

“It’s possible that his body is fighting off the effect, so it’s hitting him slower,” Caitlin proposed. The fact that the man’s attendance wasn’t questioned clued Sally that the man was probably Detective West.

“When it comes to rage, that is not a good thing,” Dr. Wells explained, “The longer you suppress your emotions—”

“The bigger the explosion,” Felicity finished.

“Considering what he can do, how do we even stop him?”

“Of the six of us, I’d probably have the best chance of stopping him, but I’ve only been training for two days.” She had actually spent three months on the street perfecting her aim, but her blasts would only boost Barry instead of stopping him. She spotted a questioning side-glance from the Detective. She held out her hand. “Sally Sylvester.”

He shook it. “Detective Joe West. No offense, but I don’t think you’ll be enough.”

“None taken,” Sally said, smiling.

“A Cold-Gun would come in _real_ handy right about now,” Cisco said.

Joe spoke up. “Hey!”

“I’m just sayin’.”

“None of us can stop Barry. Fortunately,” Dr. Wells said, “Felicity knows someone who can.” He turned towards Felicity. “I think you better call back Oliver Queen. We’re going to need the Arrow’s help.”

Everyone turned to Felicity, shocked. Sally exclaimed as if it was the juiciest gossip she’d ever heard, which it was, “No way!” Caitlin, Cisco, and Joe displayed similar emotions. Felicity herself looked terrified, but she called him back.

It didn’t take long for Oliver—the Arrow—and John Diggle, who was also on the Arrow’s—Oliver Queen’s—vigilante team, to reach STAR Labs and enter the cortex. Oliver was in his Green Arrow suit without the hood up or the mask on. It was a very surreal experience. The scientists filled both men in, and Oliver quickly came up with a plan.

“I’m going to go search for Barry while Felicity tries to determine his location.” He turned to the STAR Labs employees. “Can you four figure out a way to undo whatever has happened to Barry?”

All of them except for Sally nodded, who spoke up. “I’m coming with you.”

“What?” The fact that Oliver had flirted with her this morning didn’t stop him from being intimidating.

Sally swallowed and found her voice. “On the off-chance that you lose, and our plan doesn’t work, I’m the only other person that could possibly beat Barry and the last person in between a rage-induced Flash and Central City. It’s going to be better if I’m there, at least as back up—”

“Fine,” Oliver growled.

“Look, I know you have this whole solo thing going—did you just say ‘Fine’?”

“We’re going to need all hands on deck to defeat Barry.” He glanced at her black jacket she was wearing. “Follow me and put on your hood.” Sally followed Oliver out of the main entrance of STAR Labs and over to where Oliver parked his bike. He sat down and started the engine. “Get on behind me.”

“Thanks,” Sally said, “but I’d prefer to go on foot.”

“What the Hell does that mean?” In reply, Sally jumped from the bike parked next to STAR Labs to the chain-linked fence that separated the lab from the outside world. She was proud of how gracefully she landed at the top, crouching for balance. Oliver revved his motorcycle and took off down the street. Sally leapt after him, keeping up with the bike until they reached civilization and she jumped on top of a car.

“Have they found Barry yet?” Sally shouted over the roar of the wind in her ears. He turned right, and Sally hopped onto a different car to follow.

After Oliver ran two red lights, he shouted, “Felicity found him. He’s downtown in front of the Salvation Army.”

He took a sharp left and Sally had to hop a few cars to catch up. She pictures a rough mental map of Central City. “It’d be faster if we could cut through some of the buildings.”

They started to approach a T-intersection. “How would we do that?”

Sally stared at the intersection when a plan came to her. “You can’t, but I can. I’ll meet you there.” When they had reached the intersection, Oliver turned left but Sally jumped from the minivan she was on towards the building.

“Sally? Sally!” Oliver shouted, but Sally could hear him. She held on to a window ledge of what she guessed was the fifth floor. She quickly found footholds and jumped again, overcoming the top three floors and landing on the roof.

She leapt from roof to roof, tucking and rolling, until she landed on top of the Salvation Army, where Iris watched as Barry loomed towards a guy, who Sally assumed was Iris’s boyfriend, crawling away on the ground. She placed her hood back on, which had fallen off while she was on the roofs.

“I know that you have risked your life to help people,” Sally heard Iris shout, “to save them! Someone who does that does not suddenly turn around and want to hurt people.” Sally noticed Barry take his eyes off Iris’s boyfriend and saw it as her chance to surprise Barry. She jumped down and landed between Barry and the detective.

“Stand down, Flash,” Sally commanded, relieved that her voice didn’t shake.

Barry’s eyes glowed red. “And to think you said you weren’t going to replace me.”

Sally felt pressure behind her eyes, and red lightning flashed in her eyes in a mimic of Barry’s. “I’m not replacing you. You need help.”

“What I need is you out of the way.” Barry lunged, grabbing Sally by the collar of her jacket. Sally was just about to punch him off of her when a weighted arrow wrapped itself around Barry and he let go.

“Run,” Oliver told Iris and her boyfriend, reminding Sally that there was an audience watching. She turned around to help the detective onto his feet. She held out her hand and undetected to her, Eddie felt a slight shock when he grabbed her hand and pulled himself up.

“Run,” she said, repeating Oliver’s command. He ran without hesitation.

Sally herself jogged over to Oliver. “Stay on the roof until I call for you.” Sally nodded, not really wanting to fight a rage-induced speedster and climbed onto the roof of a ten-story apartment building.

She looked back down at the heroes and winced when she saw Barry drag Oliver at superspeed. She made her way on the rooftops until she was right above them again. She jumped when the dumpster below her exploded behind Barry, knocking him off his feet. Oliver took advantage of Barry being down, moving behind him.

When Barry stood up, Oliver shot him with an arrow to his shoulder. “Two thousand milligrams of horse tranquilizer should be hitting you anytime now,” Oliver growled.

It seemed like that would be the end until Barry managed to phase the tranquilizer out of his body. Sally didn’t even know that that was possible. Pissed, Barry then created a vortex around Oliver, which Oliver tried to escape by using an arrow to grapple out of.

“Where you going?” Barry shouted. He was, of course, faster than Oliver and Sally and ran on top of the building where Oliver’s arrow was and cut the line. Sally was poised to jump down and catch Oliver until he used a second grappling arrow to stop his fall.

The resulting fist fight that ensued after, Sally watched with an assist from the Speed Force, making Oliver appear like a statue compared to Barry’s punches. Sally barely noticed that it started to rain. Then Oliver got in one good punch to Barry’s face and Barry became relentless in the storm of punches he threw at Oliver. Oliver fell, and Sally was ready to jump into the fight. She didn’t realize Oliver had automatic arrows shot at Barry’s back until Barry caught them and she definitely didn’t expect the dagger that Oliver threw into Barry’s left thigh.

“I still believe in you, Barry.” Oliver caught Barry’s next punch and it felt like time stood still for Sally without the assistance of the Speed Force. Barry seemed to freeze, too and Oliver took the hesitation to get Barry into a strong hold. A STAR Labs van entered the alley at the same time, the side doors opened, and a flurry of colors was directed towards Barry.

When the lights died down, Sally leapt to join them on the ground. Barry held his head in his hands. “Barry,” Oliver asked, “you okay?”

Barry was breathing heavily. “Oh, this is going to be a special kind of hangover.” Sally released a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding and chuckled. She hugged Barry, relieved that he was back to normal. She helped Oliver guide Barry to the van.

“Oliver, Sally,” Barry began, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Oliver said at the same time that Sally said, “It wasn’t you.” Oliver continued, “But we do still have your metahuman to take care of. Anything left in the tank?”

“Well, if not, there’s three of us, right?”

“Right.”

“Are you sure?” Sally asked, “You both look exhausted.”

“What do you say, Barry? Do you think Sally should go after him alone?”

“I’d say she could definitely handle it.”

Sally didn’t blush at the praise, it was just the red of Barry’s suit reflected on her face. That’s all.

* * *

 

Sally didn’t realize how angry Roy Bivolo would be when he was finally captured, but she had never imprisoned someone before. Felicity’s facial recognition software relocated him, and Barry’s injuries had fully healed by the time that they had all returned to STAR Labs, so Barry just picked him up and locked him in the Pipeline.

Bivolo was facing the back of the cell when he realized what happened. “You think this will stop me?” He turned around, eyes glowing red, like Barry’s had. “I will make you tear each other to pieces! You will all die screaming with rage!” Sally, Cisco, Caitlin, Oliver and Barry sans suit stood around the cell

“Blah, blah, blah, ‘No prison can hold me,” Cisco said walking away from the cell, “Heard it all before pal.” Caitlin closed the door.

“Don’t make him angrier, Cisco, I have to deal with him later,” Sally whined.

Cisco shrugged. “Adios, Prism.”

“I liked ‘Rainbow Raider,’” Caitlin said as she followed Cisco out of the Pipeline. She was visibly proud of the name.

“Okay, you don’t get to pick the names.” Caitlin wilted.

“I think we should ask him which one he prefers,” Sally jokingly suggested, following them out.

Oliver hung back a little to admire their makeshift prison. “I have a prison like this. Mine’s on a nearly inhospitable island in the North China Sea, but this works too.” Sally decided it would be best not to think about that sentence.

* * *

 

Felicity and Oliver gathered everyone in STAR Labs to meet in the cortex for an impromptu meeting. Caitlin, Cisco, Sally, Dr. Wells, and Detective West had placed themselves into a straight-line facing Felicity and Oliver, who were in the middle of the room.

“My identity is a closely guarded secret known only to a few,” Oliver began, “and if it were to get out, will endanger my family, my friends, and it would embolden my enemies to retaliate at me through them.”

Felicity stepped forward. “What Oliver is trying to say is that he had a lovely time working with you and getting to know each of you, and he can’t wait to do it again soon.”

“Right.”

“You know, it didn’t sound like that’s what he was saying,” Cisco commented.

Detective West stepped forward to shake Oliver’s hand. “I may not agree with your methods but thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Felicity approached Caitlin as Dr. Wells came forward. “Mr. Queen, I met your father once. Charity event. One of the things we spoke of was you. I think he would be very proud of the man you’ve become.”

“Thank you, and please, call me Oliver.” They shook hands, Oliver and Felicity left shortly after.

Once they left Sally headed down to the Pipeline and decided she would stop delaying the inevitable, suck it up, and ask Bivolo what he would want to eat for lunch while she was down there. She opened the door and walked towards the two occupied cells. Kyle Nimbus was pacing, seemingly out of boredom and Roy G. Bivolo continued to rage in his cell.

Nimbus heard the door open and waved at Sally. “Hi, Sally!”

Sally smiled nervously, still creeped out by the hitman. “Hey, Kyle.”

Bivolo stopped trying to get out of his cell when he heard his neighbor’s voice, and he glared at Sally. Sally could feel the anger radiating off him. She took a deep breath and jumped up to his cell. The glow from his eyes became more intense. “What do you want from Big Belly Burger?” she asked him.

“What?” The red glow in his eyes faltered for a moment. “You have no clue who you’ve locked up?”

“You’re Roy G. Bivolo, a meta-human who can induce rage in people,” she replied, trying to appear unbothered by his terrifying glowing eyes. She was glad Cisco found a way to warp the glass on the cell so his powers can’t affect people looking at him. “Look, I just want to know your order, so you don’t starve.”

That pissed him off even more. “I promise you that you will be the first to be affected and I’ll watch as you kill everyone you love.” Sally sighed, regretting coming so soon and not giving Bivolo time for him to vent his anger. She hopped down from his cell and headed out of the pipeline.

Unfortunately, he continued his taunts. “You probably wouldn’t even last that long. I’m sure one of your friends out there would kill you before you even laid a finger on them.” Sally turned around, seeing Rainbow Raider’s eyes glowing even brighter than before as he glared at her, and she got an idea.

She launched herself from the entrance to the pipeline to Bivolo’s cell. She focused on how pissed off she was at the meta. Her body slammed into the glass, causing Bivolo to step back from it. Red lightning danced over her pupils, lasting longer than normal as she hissed, “I can do that, too.” Bivolo was shocked, the red glow finally fading from his eyes.

A low whistle was heard from the neighboring cell. “Kitty has claws,” Nimbus commented.

Sally hopped back down to the walkway. She had completely forgotten that Kyle Nimbus was there. As she turned around to leave the Pipeline a second time, Roy G Bivolo spoke, “I like Chicken Nuggets and cola.” Sally smiled to herself as she exited the Pipeline and closed the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love to hear what you guys think of Sally x Axel and the story in general. I know that this will closely follow season 1 but if there's a story line or interaction anyone would like to read, I'd love to write it! Kudos and comments are truly appreciated!


	5. Dr. Wells really needs a little bell on his wheelchair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sally's excited for more training and testing at STAR Labs only to find that Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco had gone to Starling City without her. That night, Sally goes on her first date with Axel and she gains her first fan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically a lot of stuff happens which is why this is the longest between-episodes chapter

Saturday morning, Sally woke up to the opening drums of “Shake it Off.” She groaned. She rolled over to look at her phone to see who was calling, then hurried to answer, putting the phone on speaker. She groaned into the phone.

“Good morning to you, too, Sunshine!” came Meredith’s voice from the phone.

“You can’t call me Sunshine until the sun actually rises,” Sally said.

Instead of the sarcastic remark that Sally expected, Meredith said, “Could you bring my sneakers to the court.”

Sally woke up a little more. “Did you forget them?”

“Yeah, they’re in the bottom of my closet.”

Sally reluctantly sat up in her bed. “I should be there in fifteen.”

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!”

“You owe me,” Sally said before she hung up to prepare for the day.

Twenty minutes later Sally entered the CCU Gym where the indoor volleyball court was located. She walked over to where Meredith and Coach Russell were standing.

“Hey, Sylvester,” Coach Russell said when she noticed Sally. She had invited Sally to multiple team dinners before classes had started when Meredith had explained that Sally didn’t have any family.

“You’re late,” Meredith greeted as Sally handed her the sneakers.

Sally scoffed. “Your closet is a messed,” she explained, “couldn’t find them.”

Coach Russell blew her whistle. “Ten-minute break. Don’t fall asleep!” The volleyball team walked towards them, grabbing their water bottles before surrounding Dominique.

Sally had noticed. “What’s that about?” Sally asked Meredith.

“Dominique claims to have a video of a meta-human.”

Curious, Sally joined the huddle around Dominique, but she struggled to see the video on Dominique’s phone.

“Do you think it’s the Flash?” one of the volleyball players, Chloe, asked.

“Don’t be stupid,” said another girl, Brittney, “don’t you see the hood? It’s clearly the Arrow’s new sidekick.” Now, Sally _had_ to see the video. She gently inserted herself into the group.

She had managed to give herself a perfect view of the video and when she saw it, her eyes flashed with yellow lightning. It wasn’t the best quality, but she recognized the black jacket and the blond hair that peeked out from the hood. The video, shot a block from the Salvation Army, showed her hopping from building to building in with her red and yellow lightning flourishing from her feet. The last shot of the video showed Sally on top of the Central City Salvation army, before she had jumped down to stop Barry from tearing into Detective West’s partner. Unfortunately, the shot was a pretty decent picture of her, with only her eyes being hidden from the hood.

“What are you going to do with the video?” Sally asked, trying not to panic.

Sally looked up at Dominique to find her glaring at her. Sally remembered their last interaction at Jitters and tried not to wink at her. “Well, _Sally_ ,” Sally couldn’t help but be impressed that Dominique had managed to say her name with as much venom as a slur, “I was thinking about starting my own blog about her. Why should Iris West have a monopoly on heroic meta-humans?” She gestured to the video. “I think it’s for the best. That way she won’t be eclipsed by the Flash.”

Meredith walked up and stood behind Sally. “She wears black and the Flash is bright, shouldn’t she be the moon and he’s the sun.”

Dominique’s face lit up. “You’re absolutely right! They’re like Apollo and Artemis.”

“So, they’re both the Arrow’s sidekick?” Kelly asked, “I’m confused.”

“How do you know they’re a she?” Coach Russell asked, joining the group.

“A man could never have a body that’s this sexy,” Dominique explained. Sally tried and failed to hide her snort with a fake cough. Dominique glared at her.

“It’s night and they’re wearing a black jacket; how can you see their body?” Sally asked.

Dominique’s glare didn’t soften. She crossed her arms and said, “Some of us are just more intuitive about these sorts of things.” Sally rolled her eyes.

“Are you going to name her?” Chloe asked. “Iris named the Flash, so I think it’s your duty to name your gal in black.”

Dominique thought about it for a moment. “I was thinking She-Flash, or Moon-Flash,” she added quickly. Sally started wheezing. She left the huddle, mumbling that she was late for something, and rushed off the court. It wasn’t until she left the gymnasium that she let herself laugh hysterically. God, she thought, can’t wait to tell Cisco about “She-Flash.”

After she calmed down, Sally debated whether she should go back to her room to sleep until eight or just head to STAR Labs and start her day. She chose the latter and started heading to Jitters for breakfast and to catch an early bus to STAR Labs.

* * *

 

Sally unlocked the doors to STAR Labs and headed up to the cortex. There was no one there, which was expected as it was only seven in the morning. She sat down at the console and turned on the computers, which showed no abnormal phenomena in Central City and meant no meta-human activity.

Sally sighed, thinking that maybe she should had gotten more sleep. Her gaze drifted from the computers in front of her to the room on her left. The door was currently closed, but she could see a sliver of the treadmill through the door’s window. She hadn’t had a chance to run on it yet.

Without a second thought, she walked over and unlocked the door. Dr. Wells had planned for more physical training and testing that morning, so she wore her sweats and felt perfectly comfortable jogging on the treadmill. She climbed up onto it and started running.

Sally focused on the speed force thrumming through her body. The world slowed around her, in the silence of STAR Labs the only way she could tell was the movement of her legs slowed until they felt like they were stuck in solid cement. Her teeth clenched and her brow furrowed as she balanced her concentration on both the speed force and pushing her legs to move faster. After several agonizingly slow steps, Sally sighed in defeat and the thrum of the speed force was less prominent in her mind. She went back to jogging like a regular human.

“That was a good attempt,” Dr. Wells said.

Sally faltered and fell off the treadmill at six miles per hour. _He really needs a little bell on his chair_. She laid on the floor, looking up. “You saw that?”

He nodded. “It was an excellent first attempt.”

“How could you tell?” She asked, picking herself off the ground. She noticed that he had a white box resting on his lap.

“You had red and yellow lightning encompassing your body for several minutes.” He gestured towards the treadmill.

Sally wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Instead she glanced at her watch, it was almost 7:30 am. “Hey, where are Cisco and Caitlin? They’re normally here now to check on the meta-humans.”

“They, and Barry,” he added, “are not coming in today.”

Sally and Dr. Wells reentered the cortex. “That’s odd. What happened?”

“Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry traveled to Starling City last night to assist Oliver and his team without consulting me first,” Dr. Wells explained, “so I gave them the day off.” They stopped next to the computers.

“Oh,” Sally said, disappointed.

Dr. Wells noticed. “Are you disappointed because you didn’t get to go to Starling, or because they’re not here today?”

“…Yes,” Sally answered cautiously. He chuckled. “Wait,” she added, “if Cisco’s not here, then who’s going to feed Nimbus and Bivolo their breakfast?”

“I already have that taken care of.” He smirked, holding the white box. “Do you think that they’ll like doughnuts?”

* * *

 

Sally had taken the box of donuts down to the pipeline where Kyle Nimbus quickly claimed the two jelly-filled donuts and Roy G. Bivolo took the Boston Cremes. Sally brought the doughnut box back up to the cortex where her and Dr. Wells ate the two remaining glazed doughnuts. She sat next to Dr. Wells, as he studied her file on the computers with unwavering concentration. Sally had finished her doughnut and was about to ask him what he was thinking when he beat her to it.

“Would you like to do some more tests today?” He asked as he turned to her, the last bite of his doughnut still in his hand.

“Of course,” she said, “Isn’t that why I came in today?”

“Yes, but I want to try something new. Follow me.”

Sally followed Dr. Wells as he led her into an abandoned intact section of STAR Labs. “We used these offices for storage before the explosion last year,” he explained, “I had bought some new scientific instruments that I thought we would require after the particle accelerator changed our understanding of quantum particles, theoretical and otherwise,” he chuckled bitterly, “but that didn’t happen.” Sally nodded, not knowing what to say to that.

“Fortunately,” he continued, “this area of STAR Labs was completely unaffected by the explosion.”

“That’s ironic,” Sally said, “The instruments survived just to be useless.” They stopped in front of one of the office doors in the hall.

Dr. Wells genuinely laughed at that. “It is, isn’t it. However, there’s one instrument that I think can still be useful to us.” He unlocked and gestured for Sally to enter first.

She turned on the lights and Sally was surprised to find only two items in the small office. Against the right wall there was a decently sized wooden bureau and on the left side of the room was a computer that was connected to a large black box with an opening that lined up with what Sally could only guess was a laser which was situated furthest from the door. The entire set up was resting on a counter that lined the left wall.

Dr. Wells entered behind Sally as she continued to stare at the instrument. He made his way to the counter and turned on the computer and the black box. “So, what does it do?”

“This can detect tachyons that are fired into this detector,” he explained as he pointed to the black box.

“What are tachyons?”

“Superluminal particles.” Sally stared at him, blankly. “They’re particles that move faster than light.”

“No shit, those exist?”

Dr. Wells chuckled. “Yes, they exist. And I have a theory. Remember when you blasted Barry with your lightning, and it didn’t harm him?” Sally nodded. “I want you to stand next to that laser and shoot your lightning into the detector.”

“You think my blasts have tachyons? What if I break it?”

“You’re not going to break it,” he said, certain.

“Well, if you’re sure.” Sally sighed and took her place next to the laser and waited for Dr. Wells to run the instrument.

“Okay, it’s running, whenever you’re ready.” Sally aimed and shot a short blast straight into the detector.

“Got it!” Dr. Wells announced. Sally ran over where he was sitting in front of the computer. “You see this sharp peak here,” he asked, smug, “that means that there are tachyons in your blasts.”

“Does that mean I can syphon tachyons or I can generate them?”

He shook his head. “There’s almost no noise detected before the lightning hit the detector.” Dr. Wells turned to look at Sally, but she her focus never wavered from the spectra. “There were no tachyons in the room before your lightning hit the detector.”

Sally turned to meet his gaze, stunned. “Your saying that the dark matter in my body generates tachyons?”

Dr. Wells smiled, a proud gleam in his eyes. “Exactly.”

“Damn,” was all she could say. Her legs felt weak, so she sat down on the ground. “You know,” Sally said, “two weeks ago I thought I shot lightning from my hands because I was struck by lightning. This is all so…”

“Overwhelming,” he offered.

Sally nodded and the two fell silent. _How the hell could my life change so much in two weeks, especially after I have had my powers for almost a year now._ That _should have been the weirdest and biggest change this year, yet now my body generates impossible particles and Dominique thinks my body is sexy?_

“Why don’t we analyze your lightning again,” Dr. Wells suggested, interrupting the silence, “and this time you give it your all.”

Sally nodded again and stood up, steadier on her legs than she had been moments before. She took her spot next to the laser. Dr. Wells ran the detector and Sally sent one of her strongest blasts of lightning at the detector.

The blast entered the detector. The detector overloaded. The black box exploded. Pieces of the detector strewed across the office. Sally’s speed force lightning shot past the pieces of the detector. Dr. Wells was hit in the chest by her speed force lightning. He flew off his wheelchair and into the wall.

“Jesus Christ!” Sally exclaimed and ran over to the fallen scientist. “Dr. Wells are you okay?”

He groaned and succeeded in pushing himself up into a sitting position. “I’m fine, just some bruises.”

Dr. Wells and Sally took in the pieces of detector that were scattered throughout the office. “I broke it.”

“No, you overloaded it. There’s a difference.” He gestured to his wheelchair, which had fallen on its side. “I could use some help.”

“Yeah, of course.” Sally righted up the wheelchair before she picked up Dr. Wells, carried him bridal style to the chair, and gently set him down. He wheeled over to the computer screen.

He pulled up the results from the last run and the first run and placed them next to each other. “You can see here that the second peak is more intense than the first. It’s because there were more tachyons in the second blast. You sent more tachyons at the detector than it could detect. That’s unbelievable.”

The elation that radiated from Dr. Wells was too much for Sally, so she glanced around at the office. “We should probably clean this up.”

“I’ll go get the broom.”

* * *

 

They spent the rest of the morning on Barry’s treadmill, Sally working on getting faster so that when she moved it didn’t feel like she was running through water. Sally had requested it, and Dr. Wells readily agreed. Sally thought the reason that he relented so easily was because he felt bad that she had to clean the office after the tachyonic particle detector exploded, even though he never stopped smiling the entire time, even when Sally made no progress on the treadmill. When it was noon, he asked Sally to grab Big Belly Burger for the two of them as well as the meta-humans in the basement. “Take my car,” Dr. Wells said and tossed her his keys.

Sally was shocked, immediately thinking of the BMW that was currently sitting in the STAR Labs garage. “You trust me to drive your car?”

“No, it has a self-driving feature,” Wells explained, “I trust the car. The closest Big Belly Burger will be the first preprogrammed location.”

Sally bit her cheek. “Shouldn’t your home be the first programmed location?” she deadpanned.

Dr. Wells raised an eyebrow. “Are you calling me fat, Miss. Sylvester?”

Sally quickly backtracked. “N-no, not at all! I-I was just saying—” She stopped talking when Dr. Wells laughed. Sally blinked, realizing that before that day, she had never seen him laugh before, and now he had laughed twice in one day.

“You’re absolutely right,” he said, “I do enjoy hamburgers a little too much.” Sally chuckled, relieved.

“I’ll just go get lunch,” she said and left.  She returned 30 minutes later with both herself and the car intact. She dropped off Nimbus’s and Bivolo’s lunches and ate lunch with Dr. Wells before she left to prepare for her date with Axel with the promise that she would be back with dinner for the meta-humans at seven.

* * *

 

At 4:55 Sally was walking up the driveway of Axel’s house, the porch light was on, so it was easier to find the house in the night. Sally walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. As she waited, she took off her hood. She was wearing the same black jacket that she wore when she had helped Oliver Thursday night.  

A few moments later, Axel opened the door. “Hey Sally. Come on in,” he said. Sally entered and took in her surroundings. “I hope pizza is good for dinner.” He chuckled nervously.

“It’s perfect. I love pizza!” Sally unzipped her jacket. “Your house is lovely.”

Axel looked around his house, attempting to see what Sally saw in the small, one story building as Sally removed her jacket. “Yeah it’s alright. Here let me hang up your coat,” he said before he looked at Sally and gaped. 

Sally was wearing black skinny jeans with her favorite purple blouse and black combat boots. She had also curled her hair and had full face makeup on, which she rarely wore because she detested how heavy it felt on her skin. She handed him her jacket, pretending to be oblivious to the way he was staring. “Thanks.” He silently took her jacket and hung it by the door, a slight blush dusting his cheeks.

“So, uh, I was thinking we could watch Netflix while we ate dinner, like dinner and a movie.”

“Genius! I’ve never watched Netflix before.” Axel guided Sally to his kitchen where a medium cheese pizza sat on the counter.

“Wait, you haven’t?” Axel asked as he handed her a plate.

Sally grabbed a slice and a glass of water and they headed into the living room. “No, they didn’t think it was a necessary expense at the or—where I grew up.” They sat down on the loveseat in front of Axel’s laptop and Sally quickly changed the subject. “Do you live here alone?”

“Nah, I live with my mom. She went out to see a movie with my aunt to give us some space.” Axel said as he turned on his laptop. Sally blew on her pizza. “Aren’t you going to ask about my dad?”

“It seemed like you didn’t want me to ask,” Sally said.

“Normally, I get annoyed when people ask, but… I think that I’d like you to know.” He smiled sheepishly and turned back to his laptop.

“Where’s your dad?”

“I’m glad you asked.” He leaned back as the Netflix app loaded. “He left when he found out my mom was pregnant.”

“Oh shit, Axel, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. He probably didn’t deserve my mom.” He picked up his slice. “How about you? Do you live with your parents?” he asked as he took a bite of his pizza.

“No, I live on campus.”

“Your folks kicked you out?”

“Nah,” Sally explained casually, “my folks are dead.” Sally couldn’t lie about being an orphan after Axel had felt comfortable with her talking about his dad.

Axel choked on his pizza. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Sally said, echoing Axel’s previous statement, “I never knew them. My mom died in childbirth, so I was placed in the custody of CCO because my dad was stationed overseas.”

“Oh my god. Didn’t your parents have any family that could take you in?”

“I was told that my dad’s family couldn’t be reached, and my mom’s brother turned 3-year-old me away.” Sally shrugged. “I barely remember any of this and Ruth, my caretaker, allowed me to change my name when I was 5. ‘I had been named after family members that didn’t deserve me.’ she had said, and I had agreed.” She added in a whisper, “I still do.”

Both of their slices were cooling, but they were ignored. “Do you remember your old name?”

Sally shook her head. “’Sally’ was the nickname for my birth name and ‘Sylvester’ was my dad’s first name. ‘Sally Sylvester’ has definitely grown on me.” Sally smiled at Axel and he immediately relaxed with Sally’s attempt to lighten the mood. They both turned the attention to Axel’s laptop.

“What do you want to watch?” he asked.

“I don’t know what’s on Netflix. What’s your favorite movie on Netflix?”

“Oh,” Axel said, excited, “It’s definitely a tie between two documentaries about war heroes during World War Two.”

“History buff, huh?”

He nodded. “One is about Captain Steve Rogers, and the other one is a bit darker, but it’s directed by Tarantino.”

Sally blinked. “Isn’t that the foot fetish guy?”

“Yeah that’s the guy.”

“Does it have foot fetish in the movie?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“I don’t actually remember,” Axel said after thinking about it for a few seconds.

“Well, we should probably find out.”

They both grinned. “Alright, Inglorious Basterds it is.” Axel started playing the movie and they settled down with their pizza.

Sally enjoyed the documentary and found the sudden changes in tone to be intriguing, especially for a documentary, keeping the long movie interesting along with the fantastic acting. She loved that the movie was in French and German as well as English so she could understand most of it, all but the Italian. Halfway through, she even recognized Hans Landa’s actor as the Austrian guy that Becca was obsessed with.

She enjoyed it so much that she lost track of time. The documentary had finished a few minutes after Sally had finished her fifth slice of pizza, Axel’s arm around her shoulders. She went to check her phone and panicked.

“Shit, it’s almost eight!” She jumped up, placed her plate and cup in the kitchen sink and practically ran to the door, grabbing her coat.

Axel followed her through the house. “What’s wrong.”

“I have to get back to STAR Labs! I promised I would feed the—” Sally blanked, realizing that talking about the two meta-humans jailed in the basement of STAR Labs was not first date material. “—feed _the fish_ at seven.”

“I mean they’re just fishes,” he said, “There’s no need to rush.”

“No, you don’t understand. They get really cranky when I don’t feed them on time.”

“The fish get cranky?”

“…Yes.” Sally paused, her coat halfway zipped, and gave Axel all her attention. “I really enjoyed tonight, and I’d love to get to know you more and go on another date.”

The tension visibly left Axel’s shoulders. “Me too.”

“But since this week is finals week, could we not get serious until after finals? Like, put academics first for a week.”

“Totally, I get it. I was actually going to suggest that, too.”

“That’s fantastic!” Sally leaned forward kissed Axel on the cheek. “I’ll text you,” she promised as she left the household.

“Yeah,” Axel said, his face turning red for the second time that night.

* * *

 

Sally made her way to the closest Big Belly Burger with Nimbus’s and Bivolo’s usual requests, and something extra, and caught the bus that drove by STAR Labs. When she entered the Pipeline, the “fishes” were expectantly irritable. Kyle Nimbus was in his gas phase, moving agitatedly in his cell while Bivolo glared at her, a hint of red in his eyes. “You’re late,” he said.

“Yes, I know.”

Kyle solidified. “You look nice. Where were you, with a hot date?” Sally glanced down at the food bags. “You totally were, weren’t you?” he asked, surprised, and was ready to tease her about it.

“Shut up, and please go back to being pissed at me.”

“Oh, I wasn’t pissed at you. I was just blowing off some steam.” Sally was too surprised by the pun to hold in her laugh. Roy just groaned.

Sally held up the cup holder with four drinks. “Look, I brought you milkshakes to apologize for being late, and you will get them if we stop talking about my love life. Deal?”

“Deal!” Sally put down Bivolo’s meal and leapt up to the Mist’s cell. “I knew you were my favorite,” he said.

Sally placed his food in the drawer, and he reached for the milkshake first. She hopped down and looked at Rainbow Raider (she had preferred Caitlin’s name to Cisco’s), raising an eyebrow “Sure,” he said, “I didn’t want to talk about your love life anyway.” Sally jumped up and deposited his dinner before she left the Pipeline.

“See you guys tomorrow,” she shouted as she left. Only Kyle Nimbus waved back.

* * *

 

Instead of waiting for the bus for thirty minutes, Sally decided it would be faster to get back to campus via the rooftops. She was in the middle of downtown Central City when she heard a yelp that she had become too familiar with while she was homeless during the summer. Sally jumped over to where the yelp had originated to look down and find a man in a hoodie holding a gun pointed at girl that appeared to be a CCU student. Sally jumped from the roof and landed next to the man, punching him as hard as she could, yellow and red lightning trailing from her fists.

She knocked him out cold. Sally kneeled to check the guys pulse, then stared numbly at her hand when she found it. That was new.

“Oh my god! Thank you so much, I thought I was going to die.”

Sally froze. She recognized that voice. She pulled the hood of her black jacket further down over her eyes and stood up. An overly confident smile shone on her face to hide her irritation as she turned to face the student. “You looked like you could’ve used the help,” she said.

Dominique nodded. “Aren’t you that hero that stopped the Flash during his rampage?” she asked.

“Nah, that was the Arrow.” God, Dominique was so annoying.

“Don’t be modest,” she said, playing with her hair, “that was totally you! So, are you affiliated with the Arrow or the Flash? ‘Cause it’s kinda hard to tell.”

“The Flash. I’m not that talented with a bow and arrow,” Sally explained, wanting to leave with each passing second.

Dominique bit her lip and fluttered her eyelashes, looking nervous. “So, what should I call you?”

“Speed Prophet,” Sally said, remembering how much Cisco had liked that name last week.

“It suits you.” She winked. “I’m Dominique, but my friends call me Mini.”

 _No, they fucking don’t_ , Sally thought just before she realized Dominique Bardin was flirting with her. _Dominique hates me, why is she flirting with me? I didn’t even realize she wasn’t straight. Wow, she really has a thing for blonds. What am I supposed to do with all this information now?_ _This is why she had called Speed Prophet sexy this morning! Great, now I’m thinking of myself in the fourth person._ Sally was thinking so fast that time slowed down around her, and she barely noticed. Once her confusion had passed and her thoughts slowed down, she focused back on Dominique, who didn’t catch Sally’s confused panic.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mini,” Sally lied, “you should probably go find your friends.” She just nodded, her face as red as Axel’s had been earlier that night. Sally sighed. “I hope you stay out of trouble, Mini,” she said before she jumped to the top of the building and headed to her dorm.

“No promises,” Dominique shouted in her direction. Sally ran faster to her dorm, suddenly tired.

* * *

 

Sally was awoken early next morning by Meredith, who had tossed the morning’s newspaper onto Sally’s face, front page down. Sally groggily picked it up but was instantly wide awake when she saw that the front-page story was about how she and the Oliver stopped Barry on Thursday, calling her Central City’s new vigilante, with a shameless plug for Dominique’s blog dedicated to the Speed Prophet at the end advertising the video she had recorded. The front-page photo was a screenshot from the video.

Meredith was freaking out about a female vigilante as Sally checked her phone, finding several text messages from Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, along with multiple missed calls from all three of them, a text from Detective West, who said he had gotten her number from Barry, and a vague email from Dr. Wells. Sally was now officially Central City’s second hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've realized that I've been giving Kyle Nimbus Victor Zsasz's personality from Gotham...I blame Anthony Carrigan.  
> Also am I giving Dr. Wells too much emotion?


	6. If You Can't Make Your Own Tachyons, Store-bought is Fine (The Man in the Yellow Suit)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sally comes face to face with the Man in the Yellow suit and attends her first Christmas Party.
> 
> Many questions are answered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be honest, I'm really proud of this chapter's title
> 
> So the writers in the flash are awful at getting their timeline down. They have it as the accelerator exploding on the day that Barry appeared on Arrow for the first time (Air date-Dec 11) but that would mean Barry woke up in September and I always thought of the accelerator exploding in Jan 7 which was 9 months before the Flash aired and Barry woke up so that’s what I’m going for in this story because when does air dates in the Arrowverse ever match up to the dates in the show?
> 
> Anyway, I just wanted to explain it or the people that might be confused.

Sally was dutifully looking over her notes on mechanisms, papers covering every inch of Barry’s treadmill, when she heard the familiar whoosh indicating Barry was in the cortex. She happily entered the cortex, relieved to have a reason for a study break. Barry was passing out gifts to Caitlin, Cisco, and Dr. Wells.

“Just a small token of my gratitude for everything you guys have done for me this year,” Barry said.

“Aww,” Dr. Wells said and accepted his gift. “I think I speak on behalf of my colleagues when I say you have been a gift for us.”

Sally approached the group.  “God, I hope I’m not ruining a moment.”

“Oh, Sally, you’re here!” Barry reached into his bag and pulled out a small black box with red, white, and gold ribbon. “The four of us pitched in to get you this gift.”

Sally was speechless. “Guys, you shouldn’t have!” She glanced ruefully at the little box. “Is it okay if I don’t open this until my final is over? I just don’t want it to be a distraction as I study for my Organic Chem final.”

“Dude, come on, you have eidetic memory. Why are you even studying?” Cisco asked.

“Hey, this organic chemistry we’re talking about! It can smell fear,” Sally whispered dramatically.

“She’s got a point,” Barry said. Caitlin nodded in agreement.

Cisco shrugged. “Eh, I never had to take it.”

Barry reached into his bag to grab one more thing. Caitlin noticed. “What’s that?”

“This is complements of Iris,” Barry explained, holding up a red thermos, “Grandma Esther’s famous eggnog.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Cisco said and grabbed some cups.

Maybe later for me,” Dr. Wells said as he left, “wouldn’t want to drink and drive.” The four of them watched as he left the cortex.

“Did I say something wrong?” Barry whispered. Cisco passed out the cups.

“No,” Caitlin assured.

“No, man. He, um…this used to be his favorite time of the year,” Cisco explained, “but the accident happened around Christmas, so,” he trailed off, “Kinda ruined the holidays.”

Caitlin spoke up. “I’m gonna go get him a present, maybe that’ll cheer him up.” She thanked Barry for her present and then left.

Barry filled Sally’s cup with eggnog and thanked him. She wasn’t old enough to drink but she also couldn’t get drunk so she felt that it probably wouldn’t affect her studying. As she headed back to the treadmill, she heard Barry asking Cisco about his plans for Christmas.

* * *

 

Sally had fallen asleep on her notes in STAR Labs and when she woke up, she was surprised to find a blanket draped across her body. She sat up, now fully alert, to discover a travel sized toothbrush and toothpaste sitting next to the gift Barry had given her. “Thought you might need these. HW.” Was written on a sticky note beside the items. Sally blushed at the unexpected kindness. She tied her hair up in a bun and grabbed the items and headed towards the nearest bathroom to get ready for the day.

When she was done, Barry and Joe had called a meeting in the cortex. Sally joined and stood next Cisco against the main desk. “Someone broke in to Mercury Labs,” Joe explained, “The witness described seeing a yellow blur just like the one that killed Barry’s mother.”

An evil speedster. Sally had to berate herself for not seeing this coming. Although that one moment during training two weeks ago now made sense.

“Then we need to get cracking and stop this speed psycho,” Cisco said. He started sucking on a candy cane. “That – I wasn’t trying to give him a name.”

Sally stared at him, astonished. “Where do you keep getting candy from?”

“The crime scene at Mercury Labs was on a floor with highly secured vaults, and the witness said he was looking for something,” Barry said.

“Whatever it was, he wanted it badly enough to kill for it,” said Dr. Wells.

“Doctor, what do you know about this Mercury Labs?” Joe asked.

 “Mercury labs was one of STAR Labs’ major competitors until our little setback, and then it catapulted to the forefront led by Dr. Christina McGee, brilliant but egocentric physicist.” Dr. Wells pulled up an article on Dr. McGee.

Cisco skimmed the article on a tablet. “It says here Dr. McGee has secured half a billion dollars in private funding to develop, and I quote, ‘Prototypes for the technology of the future.’”

“Well, I’ll be,” Dr. Wells said. Sally looked at him and their eyes met. “Tina’s messing with tachyons.” Sally froze feeling genuinely frightened for the first time during her internship. She and Dr. Wells shared a look, which was interrupted when Joe looked at Dr. Wells for an explanation. “Superluminal particles.”

“Of course,” Joe said as if he understood. “So, what could someone do with one of those…?”

“Tachyons.”

“Thank you.”

“Well, I don’t know. Become invincible?” Dr. Wells guessed, “If you could devise a matrix stable enough to harness their power, you could travel faster than light.” He punched his hand for emphasis. Sally briefly wondered if she counted as a stable matrix.

“He’s gonna try to get them again, so we need to get what Mercury has and use it as a lure,” Barry said.

“You’re exactly right. Cisco, Caitlin, let’s start engineering a trap.”

“You got it.”

“Of course.” The three of them exited the cortex. Sally mulled over whether she should bring up her concerns to Dr. Wells for a few moments before hurrying to catch up to them.

“Dr. Wells, can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Of course, Miss Sylvester.” He turned to Caitlin and Cisco. “Head down to the bunker, I’ll be there shortly.” The two scientists left, and it was just Sally and Dr. Wells in the hallway. Dr. Wells turned back to Sally. “I know what you’re going to say, and the answer is no.”

“But wouldn’t it be easier to just use me as bait instead of having to rely on the cooperation of Mercury Labs?”

“I will not put you in harm’s way. The last thing that we want is for this speedster to find out about you and what you can do.”

“I’ve been training for two weeks and I can hold my own against metahumans.”

“Not against speedsters you can’t.”

“Dr. Wells—”

“Sally, you will not be bait for this—this monster and that is final,” he said firmly. Sally visibly wilted. “Why don’t you go back to studying for tonight’s final. We can handle the man in yellow.” Sally nodded and begrudgingly headed back to her makeshift study space. She gathered up her notes and headed back to her dorm for a shower.

* * *

 

Sally left the CCU testing center feeling significantly lighter now that she had finished her final. She had done her best and everything was now out of her hands. She was waiting at the bus stop in front of the building when she noticed two speedsters heading in her direction. She focused on the speed force and slowed down time around her so that she could distinguish them. One was Barry in civilian clothing, and the other had a yellow suit.

“Shit.”

The others at the bus stop were focused on trying to get pictures of the speedsters, so Sally yanked the hood of her black jacket on, quickly ran into the alley and jumped to the top of the testing center in one bound. She leaped and ran across the rooftops as fast as she could. She pushed herself to be fast enough that she didn’t lose sight of them.

They entered the CCU football stadium and didn’t immediately leave, so Sally gradually made her way there. She jumped onto the top of the stadium, pausing when she noticed that Barry and the man in the yellow suit weren’t speeding around.

Barry threw a punch at the yellow speedster which was dodged. The yellow speedster then pushed Barry back. Sally immediately leapt down to help Barry. She reached the two speedsters when Barry was pinned down.

“It is your destiny to lose to me, Flash,” the man in the yellow suit said, his voice vibrating beyond recognition, “just as it was your mother’s destiny to die that night.” Sally grabbed onto his shoulders and channeled the speed force to yank him off Barry.

“Get off of him!” She grunted as she yanked. She then stood between him and Barry, ready to fight.

The man in the yellow suit was unphased by Sally’s manhandling. “The Speed Prophet,” he said before he left the stadium.

“Yeah, you better run!” Sally shouted, knowing that she was never a threat to the speedster. “You okay?” she asked Barry.

Barry had flipped onto his back when he was no longer pinned and was trying to catch his breath. “Yeah. I think I bruised a rib though, just give me a minute.”

The adrenaline of the chase and confrontation had faded, and Sally was suddenly aware that she was breathing heavy too and also that the muscles in her legs were sore. She plopped down on the turf next to him. “I think I’ll join you.”

They were silent for a few moments. “Thank you,” Barry said.

“No problem, but I doubt I was the reason why he left.” Sally stood up, her legs less sore, and offered Barry a helping hand.

They slowly made their way out of the stadium. “We should tell STAR Labs about this,” Barry said, and Sally agreed.

“I don’t really think anyone’s going to be there this late on a Friday.”

Barry nodded. “Tomorrow, then.” He gave Sally a lift to her dorm before heading to his apartment.

* * *

 

Sally made her way to STAR Labs the next morning to find Barry, Joe, and Dr, Wells in the cortex.

“He acted like he knew me, like we’d done this before,” Barry said. Sally walked in and stood next to the detective.

“He was antagonizing you, Bar,” he said.

“I would get close, and he’d just pull away,” Barry explained, “I mean this was just some sick game to him.”

“You’ll catch him. We’ll help.” Dr. Wells assured Barry.

“No, you don’t get it, alright? His speed, it is—it’s beyond me. I’m not the fastest man alive. He is. So how do we catch somebody that even I can’t keep up with?”

“The beautiful thing about forcefields, Mr. Allen, is they’re impervious to speed.” Dr. Wells wheeled closer to Barry. “Now, we’re almost finished fabricating the trap, and all that remains is for Detective West to procure the bait.”

“I’m on it.”

“Or we could use me,” Sally said, feeling confident that Joe and Barry would back her up.

“What do you mean?” Barry asked.

Sally felt Dr. Wells eyes on her. “My body naturally generates tachyons,” she explained, “I could be the tachyon lure and we wouldn’t have to rely on Dr. McGee’s cooperation.”

“Absolutely not,” Barry said.

“No way in hell are we putting you in the path of that madman,” Joe added.

“But, I mean, he knows who I am—what I am. He called me ‘the Speed Prophet.’ He probably knows more about my abilities than I do if he knew that a prophet of the Speed Force was even a thing!”

“Sally, if he was interested in your tachyons, then he would have gone after you,” Barry said, “instead he went after the prototype. You have to admit that it would be a better lure than you.”

Sally glanced over at Dr. Wells, who had a smug smirk on his face. She fought back the childish urge to stick her tongue out at her boss. “Fine,” she relented.

Dr. Wells approached Sally. “If you don’t mind me asking, Miss. Sylvester, why are so fixated with being the lure?”

Sally sighed. “I don’t know. I just feel so—so useless against this speedster. I mean, Barry has his speed, you, Caitlin, and Cisco are working on the forcefield, Joe’s getting the tachyons…the most I can do is a solid punch if he slows down enough, but so could anyone else.”

“Well, if you want to be helpful, you could get us all lunch, even lunch for the metas locked in the pipeline,” Dr. Wells suggested.

Sally nodded and with the decision made, She and Joe left to obtain lunch and the tachyon device, respectively. Barry followed.

“Barry, why don’t you stay here?”

“No, Joe, today is not the day to tell me to stay behind.”

* * *

 

Two hours later, Joe and Barry had the tachyon device. Dr. Wells asked Cisco and Barry to set up the bait, with just Sally, Dr. Wells and Joe in the cortex.

“Sally,” Dr. Wells began, “Joe and I talked, and we think we discovered a way that you could be useful in catching this speedster.” Sally immediately perked up. “Since we inadvertently concluded that he currently has no interest in you, we’ve decided that you can be down in the bunker as backup.”

“Why would you need backup?”

“My partner, Eddie Thawne, managed to figure out what we were doing and insisted that his taskforce be a part of it.”

“The taskforce to catch Barry?” Joe nodded. “So, Barry probably shouldn’t be down there with them,” Sally said, following their thought process, “but shouldn’t the taskforce be enough?”

“We feel that it would be appropriate to have at least one person down there who has experience going up against a speedster. Experience that the cops on the taskforce are unfortunately lacking.”

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

Cisco and Barry reentered the cortex. Cisco pulled up the camera feed of the bunker. “The tachyon device is in place.”

“You think it’ll work?” Barry asked.

“It’ll work,” Cisco said with absolute certainty, then he left the cortex.

“So how do we advertise to him that the prototype’s here?” Barry asked Dr. Wells.

“We’ll take care of that.” Dr. Wells crossed his arms and both he and Joe stared at Barry.

“What’s the problem?”

Sally knew what was coming. “I should probably go.”

“It’d be best if you were here for this, Sally,” Dr. Wells said. Sally nodded and stood by Caitlin’s lab, uncomfortable.

“What is the problem?” Barry repeated. Dr. Wells glanced at Joe.

Joe sighed. “Look, Barry, me and Dr. Wells have spoken, and we think it would be best if you weren’t here for this.”

“What are you talking about?”

 “You’re too close to this.”

“Or maybe you’re not close enough,” Barry said, pissed. Sally gave Dr. Wells a concerned look. He just raised an eyebrow.

“If you hadn’t been too scared and warned me that he was here weeks ago,” Barry continued, “I could’ve been prepared for this.”

“I think we can all appreciate Joe’s concern for Iris, Barry,” Dr. Wells said, defending Joe.

“That’s why I have to be here! I’m the best chance at catching this guy!”

“Not in this state!” Joe said, “At this moment the best chance of catching the man in yellow is Sally.”

Sally, who had spent most of the argument looking down at her feet, perked up. The three men glanced at her. “Could you not drag me into this.” Dr. Wells sent her an apologetic look while Barry sighed in annoyance.

“This man stabbed my mother through the heart and sent my father to prison for it. This is my fight!” Barry declared. Sally was stunned, finally realizing how much the speedster had taken from Barry.

Joe shook his head. “Not today, son.”

Barry glanced at Dr. Wells and Sally, searching for an ally. Dr. Wells held his gaze, unflinching. Sally missed the look; she was too busy thinking that maybe agreeing to their plan wasn’t the best idea. Barry sighed, defeated, grabbed his jacket and left the cortex. “Barry, wait!” Sally called as she ran after him.

“Barry, god, I’m so sorry. Joe and Dr. Wells had told me that they wanted me there because Detective Thawne’s taskforce was going to be there. If I had realized—”

“Look, Sally,” Barry said. She was relieved to find that none of the betrayal that had been in his eyes when he was whammied by Rainbow Raider existed now. “I know you would’ve never intentionally done this if you had known and, I’m glad that you’ll be there if I can’t be.”

Sally nodded, feeling a weight lifted from her chest. Then her phone vibrated. “I’ll see you later, Sally.”

“See ya.” It was a text from Axel.

_Can’t wait for our date tonight_

Date? Sally thought before she remembered she and Axel had planned to go out to dinner to celebrate the end of the semester and making their relationship official.

_Shit I’m so sorry something came up at STAR Labs and I can’t get out of it_

She followed up with, _Can we reschedule it for tomorrow?_

She waited for a few moments before Axel’s response popped up. _My mom and I are leaving to visit my grandparents tomorrow_

_When do you get back?_

_5 days before classes start_

_God I’m so sorry Axel I’d skip if I could_ , but it’s literally a matter of life and death, Sally finished in her head.

_Hey don’t worry about it we can still text and skype during break_

_Maybe we could have a dinner date via skype?_

_Sounds like a plan_ , Axel texted, then he sent a red heart emoji. Sally sent a yellow heart back.

Sally put her phone in her back pocket and headed down to the bunker to see Cisco’s set up and mentally prepare herself for that night.

* * *

 

A few hours later, Detective Thawne’s taskforce entered STAR Labs and they were led to the cortex by Joe to where Sally, Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and Cisco had been waiting. Joe quickly introduced the four of them to Thawne. “Dr. Wells and Sally will be joining us down there.”

“What? No way will I be allowing citizens to be potentially injured in this trap!”

“All due respect, Detective Thawne,” Dr. Wells said, “I allowed the CCPD to use my labs for this operation on the condition that I’d be allowed to study who or what would be trapped, and I require Sally’s assistance to do that.”

Detective Thawne analyzed Sally. “How old are you?”

“Old enough to know that that’s a rude question,” was all she said. Joe and Cisco snorted, while Caitlin silently guffawed and Dr. Wells smirked.

“Well now that we got that established,” said Dr. Wells, “we should send out a pulse.”

“I’m on it,” Cisco said. Everyone watched the screens, deathly silent. After a few minutes Cisco sent out a second pulse. There were no new changes on the feed. “Sending out another pulse.”

After a few more moments where the speedster didn’t appear, Detective Thawne was getting restless. “Are you certain this trap will work?”

“I’ve set up at least three charges into open satellite,” Cisco explained, “If anyone’s looking for tachyonic particles, they’ll know we got ‘em.”

More moments passed, waiting for the man in the yellow suit to appear before there was a flash of yellow and a person stuck within the forcefield. Sally instantly recognized the yellow suit and red lightning that matched her own. Cisco and Caitlin sat back, amazed, and Sally realized that this was the first time that everyone in the room had seen him, with only her and Joe as the exceptions.

Dr. Wells smiled at the screens. “Let’s see what we caught.” Everyone but Cisco and Caitlin made their way towards the bunker.

The four officers of Detective Thawne’s taskforce entered the room first, guns and flashlights up, followed by Joe and Detective Thawne with their guns, and last to enter was Dr. Wells and Sally, who were unarmed.

“Cisco? lights!”

Cisco’s voice projected from Sally’s earpiece. “Sure thing, Dr. Wells.” The lights turned on and Sally gasped, seeing the speedster in actual lighting for the first time. She also could have sworn he looked more solid when he stopped flitting around and glared at all of them.

“Detective Thawne, would you like to read him his rights?” Dr. Wells asked when none of the officers did anything.

Instead, Joe slowly approached the speedster with his gun lowered. “Joe, what are you doing?” Detective Thawne asked, his gun still raised.

“Getting some answers,” Joe replied. “Fourteen years ago, you murdered Nora Allen. I want to know why? _Why_?”

Detective Thawne adjusted his hold on his gun as the man in the yellow suit approached the barrier of his cage. “Dr. Wells,” he said, ignoring Joe, “we meet at last.”

Dr. Wells moved forward and placed himself next to Joe. Sally stayed back by Detective Thawne, wanting to be no closer to the yellow speedster than necessary. “What do you want with the tachyonic particles?”

“My goals are beyond your understanding.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I’m a pretty smart guy.” Dr. Wells sat up straighter and Sally was impressed that he didn’t seem intimidated by the metahuman. “I knew you were exceptionally fast, so any trap we manufactured would have to be invisible. I knew your cells could repair themselves at extraordinary speeds, so you could withstand the damage this is doing to your body right now.”

“The supercapacitors…the containment shield is fluctuating.” Sally heard Cisco’s voice faintly from her earpiece, “They need to get out of there now.”

“Dr. Wells?” Sally said hesitantly to get his attention.

He ignored her and continued with his monologue. “The reason I know all this is because your powers are almost Exactly Like Those Of The Flash,” Dr. Wells said, emphasizing the last few words.

“Dr. Wells?” Sally said, more forcefully.

“Oh, I’m not like the Flash at all,” the speedster said, “Some would say I’m the reverse.”

“Sally, Dr. Wells, evacuate!” Caitlin advised, “Get out of there now!”

Sally reacted before she knew what she had saw. A shift in the speedster’s stance, barely noticeable since she was terrified to slow down time and feel slow herself.

“Dr. Wells!” She lunged towards him. Sally saw a flash of yellow and Dr. Wells was no longer in his wheelchair. She tucked and rolled back on her feet and watched in horror as the man in the yellow suit beat up Dr. Wells.

“Cisco, turn off the barrier!” Joe shouted.

“If I turn it off, that thing’s gonna get out.”

“Cisco, he’s gonna kill Wells!”

Red lightning blazed in Sally’s eyes. “I’m going in.”

Detective Thawne ran up and held her back. “Don’t! You’re gonna get killed.”

Sally turned to face him, red lightning still unashamedly sparking in her eyes. “I can handle more than you think, Detective.” He was understandably unnerved. And let go of her shoulder.

Joe grabbed a wrench and began beating the device. Sparks flew everywhere and barriers powered down. The yellow speedster immediately stopped attacking Dr. Wells and grabbed the tachyon prototype. He was gone and it was eerily calm.

“Find him!” Thawne ordered.

The yellow speedster blasted behind them to the only entrance, trapping them. The irony wasn’t lost on Sally. The speed force thrummed underneath her skin and Sally raised her fists, not wanting, but willing to fight. The detectives and the police officers did the same.

“Don’t move,” Detective Thawne commanded, “or we will shoot.”

He knocked out all four members of the metahuman taskforce faster than Sally could have reacted even if she had slowed her perception of time. He granted Detective West and Detective Thawne a second to take in the four bodies on the ground before the yellow speedster came at Detective Thawne and hesitated.

Joe and Sally reacted quickly. Sally pulled the speedster from Detective Thawne and landed a solid punch to the stomach with all the speed force she could muster behind it. Joe shot and missed. Behind them, Dr. Wells disappeared briefly.

The man in the yellow suit pushed Eddie and Sally away, then turned to Joe. “I warned you not to hunt me,” he said just before Barry pulled him away and they started to fight.

The four survivors of that encounter were left panting on the ground as they reveled in the fact that they were alive. Sally was the first to speak. She ran up to Dr. Wells.

“Dr. Wells? Are you okay? Do you want me to help you back into your wheelchair?”

“In a minute, Sally,” he replied, “I’m fine, just need some time to calm down.” Sally nodded.

“Detectives? You both alright?” Sally asked as she turned around, “I can carry one of you if necessary.”

“I doubt you could carry Joe,” Detective Thawne replied.

“You willing to put twenty dollars on it?” Sally asked. Thawne shut up after that.

“I’m fine,” Joe said, “Though I have no doubt that it would have been worse if the Flash hadn’t stepped in.”

“How did the Flash know that we needed help?” Detective Thawne asked, staring down Sally and Dr. Wells. They both stayed silent, knowing the detective was too smart to believe any lie they said.

“Honestly, partner, I have no clue,” Joe lied.

“Sally,” Dr. Wells said to get her attention, “could you help me to my chair?”

“Of course.” Sally picked up the scientist, being careful not to bother any injuries, and gently placed him back in the seat. Three of them headed up to the cortex while Joe stayed back to revive the members of the taskforce.

When they arrived, Barry had already left, and Caitlin and Cisco were watching the feed from the security cameras on repeat. The fight that had occurred between Barry and the escaped speedster and followed by the subsequent appearance of a man on fire. Sally saw an uncanny resemblance between him and a picture she had seen once of Caitlin’s dead fiancé.

“Isn’t that the Burning Man?” Everyone faced Detective Thawne, surprised. “I read Iris’s blog,” he explained sheepishly.

“Uh, maybe?” Cisco replied.

Caitlin’s attention focused on Dr. Wells. “Oh my god, what happened?”

“You didn’t see?” Sally asked.

“The feed from the security cameras went down just as everything went to shit,” Cisco said.

“I got too close to the forcefield and he dragged me in.”

“Sally, could you help me get him onto the medical bed?” Caitlin asked.

“Yeah.” Sally turned to pick Dr. Wells back up once he gave her permission and carried him to the medical bay. Cisco followed Caitlin and Sally, focused on his tablet. “Do you need help with anything else, Caitlin?” Sally asked.

“No, I should be good here.”

“Okay, I’ll be out in the cortex if you need anything.” Caitlin nodded.

Sally saw Detective Thawne watching the fight recorded by the security cameras outside. She wanted to watch it as well, so she stood next to him.

After a few awkward moments where they silently watched the fight on loop, Detective Thawne spoke up. “So…you’re a metahuman?”

“Yep.”

“Can I assume that you’re the Speed Prophet,” he asked with a smirk.

Sally spluttered and yellow lightning flashed in her eyes. “Why would you think that?”

“You have the same build as her, you were absolutely ready to face down a speedster, your eyes had red lightning in them before,” he listed, “and just now they had yellow lightning.” Sally glanced over at her coworkers, looking for help, but they were absorbed in their own conversation. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. Thank you for saving my life from the Flash, by the way.”

“Don’t mention it,” Sally said, “You knew my name, so can I assume that you’ve read Dominique’s blog?”

He chuckled. “Iris wasn’t exactly pleased that someone was copying her _and_ that they had gotten to you first.”

“I wish it had been Iris. Dominique is the worst.”

“You know her personally?”

“Unfortunately.” They fell into a comfortable silence.

“18.”

“What?”

“Earlier, before all of _this_ happened,” Sally explained, “you asked me how old I was. I’m 18.”

“Jesus Christ.” Detective Thawne was about to say more when Joe entered the cortex. “Eddie, we better start getting back to the station.”

“Was anyone seriously hurt?” he asked.

“I called some EMTs to check them out,” Joe said, “they were just knocked out, one received a minor concussion. We got lucky.” Detective Thawne nodded and left the cortex. “I’ll be out soon I just need to ask a few questions.”

Joe turned to Sally. “Barry, Iris, and I are hosting a Christmas party tonight and I wanted to let you know that you’re invited.”

Sally was shocked. “A Christmas party?”

Joe nodded. “I know it’s last minute.”

“Like an actual Christmas party with a tree and a freshly homecooked meal like in the movies?” Joe put the pieces together immediately.

“You’ve never been to a Christmas party before.”

Sally shook her head. “In the orphanage our version of Christmas was eating day old takeout as the caretakers took shifts to watch us when they wanted to be home with their families.” Sally paused, realizing she had said too much. “I’m sorry, that’s depressing. I’d love to come.”

“Damn,” Joe said, speechless, “if I had known I would have adopted you as well as Barry. If you don’t mind me asking, when were you placed in the orphanage.”

“They told me I was dropped off when my father was killed in action when I was four, so…” She quickly did the math in her head. “2000 I believe.”

“You’re kidding.” Sally shook her head. “That’s the same year Barry’s mother was murdered, and Dr. Wells wife died.” Now it was Sally’s turn to be speechless.

Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and Cisco exited the med bay. “Joe, is everything okay?” Caitlin asked.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” he lied, and turned to Dr. Wells, “You going to be okay?”

“Just some bumps and bruises,” Dr. Wells said.

“He should be fine, as long as he rests,” Caitlin added.

“That’s good,” Sally said.

“I have to go catch up with Eddie, but you’re all invited to our Christmas party tonight.”

“Will you have Grandma Esther’s eggnog?” Cisco asked. Joe nodded. “Hell yeah I’ll be there.”

“Great, see you tonight.”

A few minutes after Joe left, Barry sped into the cortex. “What are you doing back here?” Sally asked him.

Instead of Barry answering, Cisco spoke up. “Do you still have the gift from all of us?”

“No, I left it in my dorm.”

Barry held up the little black box. “Don’t worry, I picked it up for you.”

Sally took it. “You are so lucky my roommate already went home for break. Why do I need this now?”

“Follow me,” Dr. Wells said conspiratorially, and everyone followed. Sally was the only one who was confused.

Dr. Wells lead the group to a workshop that Sally concluded was Cisco’s. It was slightly disorganized and still in use. In the middle was a manakin with a white sheet draped over it. “Cool sheet,” was all that Sally said.

“Feel free to open your gift whenever you want,” Caitlin said.

Sally turned her attention to the gift. She opened it to find a black domino mask. “Um thanks?” She looked up and found that the sheet had been removed to reveal the manakin dressed in a badass superhero suit.

The top was a jacket that was mostly black. The torso had red curved embellishments that would highlight her waist. The short collar had a yellow lightning bolt on one side and a red lightning bolt on the other. The undersides of the sleeves were yellow and the yellow continued to the palm of the gloves, stopping at the fingers which were also black. The pants were a matching black and so were the boots, although the laces of the boots were yellow. Lastly, the belt was black with a round white belt buckle with two bolts of lightning, the yellow one on top of the red one.

“Oh. My. God.” Sally said.

“Merry Christmas,” Caitlin said.

“Do you like it?” Cisco asked.

“Are you kidding me? I love it!” She ran over and focused on the belt buckle. “Is this the Speed Prophet symbol? Do I get my own symbol?”

Cisco nodded and explained various aspects of the suit. “The yellow sections of the gloves will allow your lightning to shoot out freely, and the black will contrast Barry’s red and will allow you to be less noticed at night since you’re not as fast as Barry and less likely to dodge bullets. Also, it can be stored in your backpack for easy access.”

Sally enveloped Cisco into a hug. “Thank you.” She hugged Caitlin and Barry, and Dr. Wells. “I’m going to go try this on.” Barry removed the suit from the manakin and handed it to Sally who immediately ran to the nearest bathroom to change.

When she got back, Barry was gone. “He had to go back to CCPD before anyone noticed that he had disappeared,” Caitlin explained.

“Well, it fits perfectly, and I can even do flips in it. Thank you again,” Sally said to the scientists.

“Our pleasure,” Cisco said, “Now undress so we can go to Joe’s place. I need more eggnog!”

“You three go without me,” Dr. Wells said, “I’m not feeling up to a party but tell Joe I appreciated the invitation.”

Sally switched back into her regular clothes. Caitlin stopped at her dorm so she could put the suit in her room, and they arrived at the West house where Detective Thawne and Iris had already started on the eggnog.

* * *

 

“Eggnog?” Iris asked when they arrived.

“Hell yes,” Cisco replied, and Caitlin nodded.

“I’ll get it,” Detective Thawne said.

Sally followed him into the kitchen. “Can I have some eggnog?”

“Absolutely not. You’re 18.”

“Please, Detective? It’s Christmas!”

“Okay, first, after everything that has happened today and last week, please call me Eddie, and second, I’m an officer of the law. Allowing you a drink would be illegal.”

Sally pouted and sat down on the couch next to Caitlin. Eddie handed Caitlin and Cisco’s mugs of eggnog. To make more room, Eddie sat down in a chair and Iris sat on his lap.

Sally got an idea. “Hey, Iris, can I have some eggnog?”

“Yes, of course.” She got up and headed for the kitchen. Eddie stared at Sally, his jaw slack and eyes wide, impressed and insulted at the same time.

Sally smirked. “I saved your life twice and you had the gall to refuse me eggnog? You deserve this.”

Cisco choked on his eggnog while Caitlin glance shifted between them. “He knows?”

“Yeah, he figured it out,” Sally admitted, “I did kind of use my lightning in front of him today.” Iris returned from the kitchen and handed Sally a Santa Claus mug. “Thank you.”

Iris sat back down on Eddie’s lap and they made idle chat. Sally was halfway through her eggnog when Joe and Barry walked through the door.

“Hey!” Joe said. The gathered group turned at the newcomers

“Oh!” Cisco replied leaning backwards over the couch. Eddie waved as Caitlin stood up to fully face them. Sally turned while sitting to wave as well.

“Hey,” Barry said as he removed his jacket, “What are you guys doing here?”

“I invited them,” Joe answered, “Where’s Dr. Wells?”

“Uh, he wasn’t feeling up to a social gathering, but he appreciated the invitation,” Caitlin said, “Eggnog?”

“Yes,” Joe said eagerly. Barry walked around to join the group, slapping Cisco’s shoulder. Cisco stood up from the couch to talk to Joe.

“Merry Christmas, Barry,” Eddie said.

“You too, Eddie.” Sally heard. She and Caitlin got up to give them their privacy. She started a discussion with Caitlin about whether her super-tolerance to alcohol was the same as Barry’s and Barry soon joined in.

It wasn’t long before Iris shouted for Joe. “Dad, it’s time.” Everyone began to gather around the tree.

“Wait, what’s happening?” Sally asked.

“It’s tradition that we place the tree topper during the gathering,” Barry explained.

“Tree topper? Like the star?”

Barry shrugged. “We actually have an angel.”

Joe picked the angel up from below the tree. “Okay, let’s see.” He carefully placed it at the top and turned it on. Everyone rejoiced when it went smoothly without complications and Sally got a little teary-eyed with how beautiful the moment was.

* * *

 

When Caitlin dropped Sally back at her dorm, she tried something that she had never attempted before. Sally sat down on her bed, her legs crossed, her eyes closed, and she focused on the scar on her back. It wasn’t long before she found herself in the girls’ bedroom at Central City Orphanage, sitting on her childhood bed. In front of her sat Camila with her backpack open and her notes scattered around her.

“Mila?”

Mila smiled at Sally; a wise old smile that looked foreign on a face so young. “Hello, Sally.”

“Please,” Sally sighed, understanding immediately, “not her.” ‘Mila’ nodded, and their surroundings warped into Axel’s living room. The Speed Force morphed into Axel.

Sally had more questions now than when she had first started meditating. “Why is there…an environment now when before it had just been a swirling blue mass?”

“We figured that it’d be more comfortable,” Axel said, “Is it not?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“That was not your question.”

“Yeah, I, um, I got two. Where do the tachyons in my lightning come from? Like, do I generate them, or do I syphon them from you?”

“The dark matter in your body generates them and then they flow through your connection to us for other speedsters to use. There always exist a prophet to generate them.”

“All speedsters?” Sally asked, choosing to ignore the last part for now.

Axel sighed. “Yes, all speedsters. Even those with red lightning.”

“Is that why my lightning matches both Barry’s and the yellow speedster?”

“Yes, you are connected to both of them, and you generate tachyons for both speedsters, creating both negative and positive tachyons.”

“Damn,” Sally mused, “I know nothing. I didn’t even realize that tachyons can have a charge.”

Axel smiled that old smile, which barely looked better on his face. “The best method to learn is through experience. You’ll understand everything eventually. You had one more question.”

“Yeah, who is the yellow speedster anyway?”

Axel’s smile turned into a grimace. “We knew you would ask this question. His name is Eobard Thawne.”

“Did you mean Eddie Thawne?”

“No, this man is his descendent, not born for another 141 years, six months, and six days.”

“Oh, time travel. WAIT THAT EXISTS?”

“Yes.”

“Do I get to time travel?”

“Eventually,” Axel/the Speed Force answered vaguely. Sally suddenly heard Shake it Off. “You should answer that.”

Sally woke up and grabbed her phone, quickly answering it. “Hey, Axel.”

“Hey, Sally,” the real Axel said, “How was your day?” Sally groaned. “That bad?”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated!
> 
> Find me on tumblr: lunacornfan2k19

**Author's Note:**

> When I rewatched this episode i realized that while fake wells is listing off people who the particle accelerator explosion killed, Ralph was one of them. Was that a fluke, or did undoing Flashpoint save Ralph's life?


End file.
